Congress’ Failure and Proposed State Cuts Will Slash Mental Health
Services Across New York When They are Most Needed
May 15, 2020 Contact: Harvey Rosenthal, NYAPRS CEO 518-527-0564
Make no mistake about this.
Congress’ shameful failure to approve COVID-19 emergency funding to the states and the resultant possibility of across the board state cuts in local aid will devastate community mental health service systems across New York at a time when they are most needed.
Without federal relief to the states in sight, the Governor is expected to release details in the coming days of his plan to slash $8 billion in local services across the state. In fact, several local officials have already notified community providers this week to be prepared for a 20% cut.
A brief polling of a number of NYAPRS member agencies from across the state gives only a partial look of the impact of these disastrous cuts, projecting significant reductions if not the elimination of both virtual and face to face services of the following kind:
Westchester-Putnam: support services for at risk children and families, veterans’ services, drop-in, and crisis management centers, sex offender treatment, hunger action services, intensive mobile treatment team and homeless shelter support services.
Hudson Valley: crisis respite, child advocacy programs, rape crisis services, transportation, education, closure of some supported housing beds and elimination of specialized services for those with both mental health and substance use related conditions.
Central New York: crisis and homeless diversion programs and mental health/substance use relapse prevention services
Southern Tier: mobile crisis team, short-term crisis respite center and essential peer to peer supports
Long Island: a COVID crisis help line, crisis and hospital diversion services, peer to peer support, homeless outreach including a mobile shower unit, tele-health and case management supports
New York City: intensive mobile treatment teams, homeless outreach, rape and domestic abuse services, prison/jail diversion services and rehabilitation, wellness and crisis respite centers
Western New York: community housing with supports, crisis hot lines, rehabilitation and drop-in centers, peer recovery guides and transportation
North Country: staff layoffs that will shrink mobile crisis, hospital and jail diversion services.
Some direct comments from community mental health agency leaders:
“With cuts of this magnitude, we’ll no longer be able to effectively assist hundreds of people who call on us every day due to behavioral health crises, hunger, homelessness and sexual assault. We must not jeopardize the jobs of skilled, compassionate and dedicated front-line staff who are unequivocally saving lives every day.”
“The COVID crisis will only intensify the need for mental health, substance use and suicide prevention programs and social services like housing, employment, homeless and eviction prevention services in the coming months if not years. This is a time to expand not cut critically needed services of this kind.”
“A cut this size would literally compromise the future existence of our agency. At a time when mental health services and support are at a record high, we need additional funds to meet the needs, not be placed in a position of fiscal insolvency.”
‘Our staff has been so resilient and creative in the midst of the COVID crisis to ensure we could provide all of our services remotely for people who need them, and I’ll get to repay them with pink slips.”
Congress must act within the next few weeks and, at the same time, it is imperative that Governor Cuomo delays imposing these cuts until they do. It makes no sense to make damaging cuts of this kind in the next few weeks that may be restored in the coming months.