Letter to the Editor

  • May 15, 2010
  • 490
                        
On behalf of the Wayne-Holmes Mental Health & Recovery Board, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those clients, staff members, board members, provider agency personnel, and community members who worked on and voted FOR the Mental Health levy on May 4, 2010. Unfortunately the FOR votes fell short, and the levy did not pass. The Mental Health & Recovery Board will be evaluating future options for fund development. Understanding mental illness and addiction is vital to making good choices with regard to government funding and levy requests. The levy committee had repeated chances to educate hundreds of citizens in both counties concerning behavioral health issues and why the levy was needed. We stressed that: In a recent poll of Wayne and Holmes counties’ adults, one in three said they have a family member or know a neighbor or colleague who has used the counseling and recovery services funded by the MHRB. Ninety-five percent of all levy money would have gone directly to agencies providing services, stabilizing those services until 2017. Over 20,000 children, adults and elderly in our community receive services, and program cuts have already taken services away from 6,000. Every day, the MHRB and its provider agencies support more and more families coping with job losses, marital difficulties, and addictions. Funding mental health is a wise fiscal choice for Healthy Minds and Healthy Communities. By spending a little up front for prevention and treatment, taxpayers save a great deal later in the consequential cost of jails, prisons, out of home placement for children’s, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, etc. With state funding continuing to decrease, a levy is the only way to fund these upfront types of programs as well as continuing the essential and mandated services for the severely mentally ill. The board will continue to practice the most efficient and effective services in both counties. The board will make the best use of taxpayers’ dollars and stretch them as far as possible. The board will continue to educate the public on issues of stigma reduction and recovery rates for behavioral health conditions. Again thank you for your support and for attempting to understand these important issues. Judy Wortham Wood, Executive Director Wayne-Holmes Mental Health & Recovery Board


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