Mental Health Advocates Oppose Connecticut Governor’s Proposed Budget Cut in New Program

The launch of a "sweeping" mental health initiative called KidCare might be delayed as Connecticut Gov. John Rowland (R) has proposed to cut the program's funding by $1.5 million to offset an estimated $91 million state budget deficit this year, the Hartford Courant reports. The program, which offers mentally ill youth community-based treatment instead of placing them in "costly" residential treatment programs, was set to begin in New Haven in December and then expand statewide in 2002, the Courant reports. KidCare is designed as a "public-private partnership" between the state Department of Children and Families, which will be responsible for the program's administrative aspects, and "private mobile crisis units," which will coordinate care at the local level. Children and Families Department Commissioner Kristine Ragaglia said that KidCare is "definitely one of the biggest prevention initiatives [the state has] done and it is certainly the biggest mental health initiative" the department has undertaken. Mental health advocates have decried Rowland's proposed $1.5 million budget cut, which represents about 12% of the program's services budget. Sheila Amdur, president of the Connecticut chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, said that "any savings state officials hope to make by cutting back on KidCare will be quickly erased." According to a study of a pilot KidCare program, the initiative provides mental health care for about $500 less per month per child than the "traditional" approach of placing mentally ill children in residential facilities. To house a child in a residential treatment facility costs the state about $61,000 per year; the state pays an additional $25,000 per year for education. Amdur said that further KidCare cuts "will only assure that [the state] will grossly overspend for residential and inpatient care." Ragaglia is set to meet with Marc Ryan, the governor's budget chief, on Oct. 12 to discuss unspecified "alternate cuts" to protect funding for the program (Poitras, Hartford Courant, 10/9).