Mental health services cut

Painful budget process continues

By FRITZ MAYER

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — Residents who want to use the mental health services provided by the county currently have to wait about two weeks to see a social worker and from four to six weeks to see a doctor. With the budget cuts planned to the Sullivan County Department of Community Services, those waits are projected to double.

That was the word from Joe Todora, the director of the department, at a meeting at the Sullivan County Government Center on December 3, as lawmakers continue the task of closing a wide budget gap for 2010. Todora said his department would lose five positions, out of a total of 86, which would lead to the longer waits for care.

Most of the patients are on Medicaid or a combination of Medicare and Medicaid, and have no other alternative for mental health treatment, Todora said. He added, however, that the agency does triage patients, so the ones with the most serious needs do not wait that long.

As bleak as the outlook is, it could become even worse. The New York State Legislature revealed the previous day that it would cut $112 million from community services throughout the state. The amount that would be cut from Sullivan is not yet known, but officials are concerned that further reductions may be ahead, with no corresponding cut in required services that the county is mandated to offer its residents.

County manager David Fanslau has been railing against the state legislature, specifically for this reason. He said, “The concern that I have is that they’re going to keep all the mandates in place, remove the funding and then require the taxpayers of Sullivan County and the other counties in the state to pay the bill. And that’s unsustainable.”

In the proposed budget, which is due to be voted on by the county lawmakers on December 17, nearly all of the departments and county-supported agencies are being cut for 2010. The Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development, for instance, will get about $90,000 in funding from the county, which is about half of what the agency received in 2009.

In another attempt to reduce the deficit in the years after 2010, the county is looking at privatizing some operations, such as the Sullivan County Adult Care Center and the concession stand at Lake Superior State Park in Bethel.