Virginian-Pilot


DATE: Monday, September 22, 1997            TAG: 9709220074

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   65 lines




VIRGINIA - NEWS BRIEFS

RICHMOND

Broader community mental health care could save money

Expansion of community-based mental health services would cost the state $190 million over two years, but the alternative - modernizing state institutions and hiring more staff - would be even more expensive, officials say.

The state hopes to pare down some of its strapped institutions and use the savings to pay for community services. It will need ``bridge money'' to put the strategy in motion, said Dr. Timothy A. Kelly, who resigned last week as state mental health commissioner.

``There needs to be new funding for services in the community just to get the process rolling,'' he said.

Gov. George F. Allen's administration has not proposed any new money for community services to the mentally ill who would be released from state institutions.

Instead, during the last 3 1/2 years Kelly has emphasized ``system reform,'' an approach aimed at moving the state toward a managed care approach for treating mental illness, retardation, and substance abuse problems.

``If we had not done that first, if we just put more money in the system, all we would have done would have been to sustain the status quo,'' Kelly said. ``You've got to win the concept battle first.''

His successor, Richard E. Kellogg, will have to go beyond concepts to hard dollars when he advises a legislative committee Oct. 24 on how much it will cost to make the proposed strategy work. The mental health department has estimated costs at $190.5 million.

ST. PAUL

Southwest will challenge Va.'s welfare reform plan

Virginia's 2-year-old welfare reform program faces perhaps its sternest test next month, when it takes effect in the state's impoverished coal-mining region.

Beginning on Oct. 1, the unemployed in extreme southwest Virginia will be ordered to find jobs that simply do not exist, those charged with implementing the reform say.

Unemployment periodically tops 20 percent in the region, where there are few major employers and no public transportation system to carry people from their rural homes to jobs, should they find them.

``No one is saying it's going to be impossible, but it's going to be tough,'' said Jerry Spence, social services director in Lee County.

``There are people here who want to work, and they have a history of working, and they can't find a job. So how are people used to being on assistance going to find jobs?''

So far, Gov. George F. Allen and his aides have been able to ignore those who predicted dire consequences if benefit recipients were forced to take jobs. Since the phased-in reform began in July 1995, nearly 70 percent of those required to find jobs have done so. Welfare rolls have been reduced more than 31 percent, and the state has saved $57 million.

The reform requires able-bodied welfare recipients to find jobs in 90 days or earn their benefits through community service. Whether they find paying jobs or not, after two years they can no longer receive benefits.

Clarence Carter, commissioner of the state Department of Social Services, said Virginia's welfare reform has worked because those implementing it have found creative solutions to transportation, child-care and other problems.

He said the same can be done in the counties set to begin the initiative in October: Wise, Lee, Dickenson, Buchanan, Scott, Russell and Tazewell.



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