Not Helping

Posted on September 17, 2007 in California Watch Mental Illness

Proposition 63, the mental health millionaires’ tax, generated millions of dollars for sufferers of mental illness. With its emphasis on special programs, however:

Some cash-strapped counties have slashed traditional funding for mental health services, and the state has made cuts too. In almost every corner of California, which has an estimated 1 million people with serious mental illness or emotional disturbance, core mental health budgets are stagnant at best while demand for services balloons.

Although mental health advocates in the state are thrilled about a guaranteed funding source that isn’t subject to budgetary whims, they worry that innovative programs created with the new money are being layered on top of a disintegrating mental health system that Proposition 63 does nothing to correct.

And the new law forbids counties from using Proposition 63 money to backfill — to pay for programs that existed prior to its passage. That provision was written to protect the new money, to keep counties from making cuts elsewhere that would undermine the promise of the new program. But it has also added to the sense among some healthcare administrators that their hands are tied.

“Proposition 63 was a huge policy mistake,” said Jeff Smith, executive director of the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center, which cares for scores of poor, uninsured residents. “It took a good amount of money and dedicated it to new services at the same time that old services have been just ravaged. Instead of solving a problem, it just covered it over — with a nice, fluffy frosting.”

Here in Orange County, hopes that Proposition 63 would enable the implementation of Laura’s Law have not materialized as realities. With millions being cut by AHnold for other treatment programs (which is illegal, incidentally) and shortfalls in traditional mental illness, mental health clients may find that Proposition 63 changes nothing or makes things worse.

Here’s a story about how rural areas are not reaping the benefits of Proposition 63.