MENTAL HEALTH CARE~It's about quality of life, stupid

I guess the Michigan legislature didn't see the broadcasts about the Virgina Tech shooting . . . .

New mental health plan still bitter pill
GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Friday, May 11, 2007
By Ron Fongerrfonger@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6317

GENESEE COUNTY - Adults with mental illness or developmental disabilities would still face cuts in programs designed to get them out of their group homes and into jobs under a new plan headed to the county Community Mental Health Board of Directors next week.
A committee of CMH - pushed by more than 100 CMH clients, parents and contractors Thursday - approved a new plan for cutting $1.5 million by the end of the fiscal year, a replacement for an earlier proposal to eliminate day programs.
Few of those at the meeting went away happy, but CMH board members and administrators said they are doing what they can in anticipation of state cuts.
"There is pain (but) ... it keeps programs open. It keeps people working ... It gets us what we need to survive," said Danis Russell, chief executive officer of CMH.
Russell said the new plan would cut the time some clients spend in day programs, cut funds to contractors who oversee clients, and depends on concessions from the union representing CMH employees who work in two of the agency's own programs.
The CMH board could make the decision final Thursday.
The decision to cut day programs caused a wave of protests from clients like Suzane Bacon, a client in one of the programs.
"I don't want you to cut funding. It's a place I can make friends and keep friends. We're people," Bacon said Thursday.
Edith Harris, whose daughter participates in a program, said she worries about those who live in group homes, have no family and depend on job or activity programs.
County Commissioner and CMH board member Rose Bogardus criticized some who brought adults who are involved in the programs to Thursday's committee meeting, saying they were being "used as pawns."
Some program participants struggled to make their points to the board or others spoke for them in from of the noisy crowd.
Bogardus, D-Davison, has said she's willing to listen to alternatives, but blamed Republicans in the state Legislature for refusing to enact taxes to pay for programs.
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