Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 9, 1993 TAG: 9403180032
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BARBARA TODD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Eight years ago, advocates invited the gubernatorial candidates to present their views on meeting the needs of mentally disabled Virginians. They both came and they both promised to address this issue. Gerald Baliles won that election, and kept his promise handsomely by including in his budget $65 million to make a start at meeting the needs of mentally disabled Virginians.
Four years ago, as a coalition of advocacy groups, we again invited the gubernatorial candidates. They both came and made promises to us. Since his election, Gov. Douglas Wilder responded with a series of staggering budget cuts which have canceled the previous gains. Mental-health, mental-retardation and substance-abuse services are no longer a priority.
This year, we again invited both gubernatorial candidates to speak to us. Neither chose to come. The message is loud and clear: Human services can be decimated in the interest of economy or of other spending priorities. This trend is appalling.
The very lives of our most vulnerable citizens are at stake. The system that provides service to mentally disabled Virginians is on the verge of disaster.
In the past four years, $68.6 million has been lost from the budget that provides this care and treatment. An additional cut of $40 million is now being planned. This will certainly happen unless public concern can convince our elected officials that this catastrophe must be prevented.
In the past few years, 290 beds have been closed in state hospitals and training centers. Current plans call for closing 392 more. Critical community-based services will be denied to 9,591 persons, in addition to more than 10,000 now on waiting lists.
Families struggling to care for profoundly retarded children at home will have no hope of assistance or relief. Persons suffering from a mental-illness crisis will be denied hospital care.
Last month I stood on a mountain ridge in the state of Washington, and all that I could see was utter destruction in every direction. There had been an almost immediate transformation of a magnificent mountain and a vast expanse of pristine natural beauty into a barren wasteland. The devastation had been caused by the eruption of Mount St. Helens. It was awesome.
Today I sense the same dismay as I witness the destruction of our mental-health, mental-retardation and substance-abuse system in Virginia. Since the beginning of the recession, advocates have voiced alarm that state and local budget cuts were depleting services for our mentally disabled citizens.
Under instruction from the highest authority, public officials have refused to acknowledge this erosion. They were instructed to placate us with shopworn phrases such as "cutting out the fat," "streamlining management" and "doing more with less."
Each cut was an earthquake that weakened the very foundation of our system. Each shook loose a few building blocks of direct services to our clients. Gov. Wilder's additional proposed budget cut of $40 million for this system will be an earthquake of magnitude 8.2 on the Richter Scale. It will do irreparable damage to Virginia's ability to serve our mentally disabled citizens.
This may well be the final earthquake preceding total destruction. We cannot close a significant number of beds throughout our institutional system. We cannot reduce community services at the same time without causing immeasurable pain for our most vulnerable citizens.
A T-shirt from Mount St. Helens said, "Chicken Little was right; the sky is falling." The sky is now about to fall on mentally disabled Virginians unless concerned citizens urge all candidates and all elected officials to scrutinize Gov. Wilder's new spending priorities that make these budget cuts necessary.
If sufficient savings cannot be found there, then they must develop additional revenue to avoid this crisis. Virginia must not abandon those who are disabled by mental illnesses and mental retardation nor those in need of treatment for substance abuse.
Barbara Todd of Falls Church is with the Coalition for Mentally Disabled Citizens of Virginia.
by CNB