HOUSTON – A proposed round of state budget cuts is worrying advocates of the mentally ill.
Earlier this year, the Legislative Budget Board and Gov. Rick Perry's budget office asked departments to slash their 2012-2013 budgets by 10 percent.
The Department of State Health Services recently announced $245.9 million in proposed cuts. Much of that total affects mental health services.
"We had to make some tough decisions," said Carrie Williams, the department’s spokesperson. "It was impossible to leave mental health services untouched as they're such a large part of our budget."
The Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County is calling the proposed cuts “devastating” to the mentally ill.
"It's really tragic how we are treating these conditions in this state,” said Dr. Steven Schnee, MHMRA’s executive director. "People with these serious conditions don't go away. They will resurface someplace and we will pay as a community."
Schnee estimates the proposed cuts would halt treatment to 2,000 patients in Harris County alone. He said that will mean greater costs down the line for emergency room treatment, as well as higher crime.
The Harris County jail has turned into the largest mental health care facility in the state.
"I worry because it's going to create a lot of problems," said Felix Martinez, a longtime patient at MHMRA who was diagnosed with schizophrenia more than 20 years ago. “[If it hadn’t been for this treatment] I think I would've wound up living in the streets or wound up dead."
Lawmakers will have to vote on these proposed cuts during the next legislative session, which begins in January and runs through May.
