What will proposed cuts mean for the mentally ill?

Montpelier, Vermont - January 26, 2011Morgan Brown credits the Vt. Mental Health Department with where he is today."I was homeless for 12 years," Brown said.The state helped him find and afford a place to live. It inspired him to become a watchdog for mental health issues. Brown is upset with Gov. Peter Shumlin's proposal to cut more than $13 million in services to mental health programs, the elderly and developmentally disabled."The programs and people that get served by them are going to be impaled and it's going to be painful," Brown said.Brown's not the only one upset."What this cut threatens to do is take an infrastructure that's already shaky and make it much more shaky," said Floyd Nease, the executive director of the Vt. Association for Mental Health. "There are hundreds of Vermonters who aren't going to get services now and thousands whose services are going to be directly reduced as a result of these cuts."Shumlin's administration is defending the cuts, saying it's necessary to balance a tough budget-- the state has a $176 million shortfall."I think there's no doubt that patients will be effected but we're trying to do it in a manner that people will be impacted less dramatically than you might otherwise have to," said Christine Oliver, the commissioner of the Vt. Mental Health Department.It could be a tough sell at the Statehouse. Mental health advocates argue their budgets have already been cut."These agencies have been cut now 3 years in a row-- $50 million has come out of their budgets. They've been cut over and over and over again," Nease said."Yes, it's going to be hard. It's hard on everybody. We're trying to spread the cuts as wide as possible so the impact on any one person isn't as great and the hope is the next year we'll be in a better position," Oliver said.Morgan Brown plans to fight the cuts, hoping others get the chance he did."I'm afraid that people won't be able to live independently in the community as they may want to which I've been able to enjoy," Brown said.While mental health advocates point to areas that have seen cuts over the years, the Shumlin administration says during the last five years the number of people using the services has leveled off and that overall funding has increased $35 million for mental health services and the developmentally disabled.Gina Bullard - WCAX News