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ATRA Supports Mental Health Prevention Funding
February 28, 2002
The Honorable Tom Harkin
Chairman, Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
Appropriations Subcommittee
123 Hart SOB
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Ralph Regula
Chairman, House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
Appropriations Subcommittee
2358 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairmen Harkin and Regula:
On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we are writing to express our grave concern about the Administration's failure to provide adequate funding in its budget for Fiscal Year 2003 for critical programs designed to help people with, or at risk of, mental illnesses and other disabilities. As organizations dedicated to the prevention of mental illness and the promotion of mental health, we are especially concerned with the systematic underfunding or decimation of sound public health prevention programs in the budget. We urge you to make mental health a funding priority for FY 2003.
Our national mental health system is underfunded and overburdened. It cannot and does not adequately meet the needs we faced before the events of September 11th, and is wholly unprepared to address the mental health issues associated with the ongoing trauma of threatened domestic terrorism. Our public mental health system is also wholly unequipped to address the human toll on people whose lives are upended by the strains of unemployment and recession. With all these challenges, already overburdened mental health systems are further imperiled by state and local budget shortfalls.
The Administration's budget for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) would cut $17 million in current funding for one of its core missions, improved community mental health, and would effectively cut - at a time of double digit health care inflation - most other mental health programs through stagnant funding. Cutting cost-effective, evidence-based prevention programs, which can avoid far greater future public health costs, would only compound the mental health crisis we are currently facing. This budget does increase by some 8 percent funding for research by the National Institute of Mental Health, but SAMHSA's efforts to apply NIMH research findings to community practice will be sharply hamstrung by a shrinking budget.
To illustrate, the budget would
level fund school and community-based violence- prevention
initiatives and eliminate altogether funding for Community
Coalitions for the Prevention of Youth Violence. Programs
that address the emotional and behavioral needs of youth,
and engage parents, students, families, schools and communities
to work together are critical to preventing youth violence
and promoting more positive youth development. And yet the
following programs, as an example, are targeted for level
funding in the Administration's budget:
· Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative (SS/HS):
This collaborative initiative - administered jointly by the
Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Justice
- helps school districts to collaborate with local mental
health and law enforcement agencies to develop comprehensive,
community-wide violence prevention programs based on proven
strategies for fostering school safety and healthy youth development.
· Youth Violence Prevention Initiatives: The Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, supports several important youth violence prevention initiatives including Safe Schools/Healthy Students. CMHS also funds School and Community Action Grants designed to help localities expand their youth violence prevention efforts in a more targeted fashion by building community consensus to implement exemplary practices regarding violence prevention and resiliency development. Communities across the country need assistance in establishing fundamental social and emotional development, mental health, and violence prevention strategies for their children.
These cuts in federal support are compounded by proposed reductions in funding for juvenile justice prevention, housing supports, VA health care, and school-based mental health services - including elimination of the elementary and secondary school counseling program. This would simply exacerbate the ever-increasing difficulty people have in gaining access to effective mental health services. For millions across the country, a budget laden with cuts, frozen funding, and termination of effective mental health programs is an unwitting formula for despair, joblessness, interaction with the justice system, poor academic performance, and even suicide.
More than ever, we need your resolve to counter this grave outlook and pledge your commitment to improve the availability, accessibility, and quality of mental health services through increased federal investment in federal mental health programs. We urge you to reject the proposed $17 million cut in SAMHSA funding for CMHS Programs; increase substantially federal support for community-based mental health early intervention, prevention and treatment services; and increase substantially funding for the many other federal programs such as juvenile justice which face problematic shortfalls in funding for programs vital to people with mental health needs.
Thank you for your consideration of our views.
Sincerely,
Alliance for Children and Families
American Association on Mental Retardation
American Counseling Association
American Music Therapy Association
American School Health Association
American Therapeutic Recreation Association
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs
Arc of the United States
Children's Defense Fund
Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation
Learning Disabilities Association of America
National Assembly on School-Based Health Care
National Association of Pupil Services Administrators
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
National Coalition on Deaf-Blindness
National Mental Health Association
National Network for Youth
National Respite Coalition
School Social Work Association of America
Tourette Syndrome Association
Women of Reform Judaism
cc: The Honorable Arlen Specter, Ranking Member, Senate Labor,
Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee
The Honorable David Obey, Ranking Member, House Labor, Health
and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee