Those with disabilities waiting for help will have to wait longer

One blow that Coast families will feel from state Department of Mental Health cuts, announced last week, will be a longer wait for help with a disabled child or a chance to get in-home care for adults who need assistance to function.

The department announced it is expected to eliminate 650 jobs and reduce some services statewide by mid-2018 in response to legislated budget cuts, which may range from $14 million to $20 million.

Besides eliminated jobs, the department also halted enrollment in the Home and Community Based Waiver program that pays for care outside institutions.

There are 150 people in South Mississippi waiting to receive those services — 1,300 statewide. These are often people functioning with autism or cerebral palsy who need management or physical support in order to contribute to the community.

Enrollment is frozen at the 2,515 slots that are already filled. The new patients on the waiting list will only be added when patients leave the program, the state department said. The Legislature set the cap on the program for cost reasons.

The move delivers an immediate blow to those waiting, especially 84 families that were closest to being accepted into the program.

“There are a lot of people on the list that have waited a long time and not gotten service,” said Janie O’Keefe with Disability Connection on the Coast. “It’s very sad.”

She said this includes parents who need help with a disabled child so they can go to work and earn a living. She said they see families disrupted when the father or mother has to give up work to stay home with a child.

“Right now there are the people who have gotten into the program and the people who have to wait. Some parents have the service and some have none,” she said. “It’s just the way the system is designed.

“There are people on the waiting list that really need help and have been told for years they will have to wait. Our office gets a lot of calls from these parents — maybe it’s summer and they need child care while school is out or they are struggling with after-school care. It’s hard to find a place that will take a disabled child, especially an older one in diapers.”

“We need people to realize it’s a real problem,” O’Keefe said. “When they freeze the waiver program, these parents waiting patiently to get in will wait longer or indefinitely.”

Waiting goes on

Cuts in general is the wrong conversation to be having, said Matt Nalker, executive director of ARC of Mississippi, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“As we downsize institutions and move (patients) to the community, most are able to get out on an IDD (Intellectual Developmental Disability) waiver administered by the Department of Mental Health. The Legislature has tied the hands of DMH ... We need more waiver slots, not less.”

He pointed out that since the announcement of cuts, the department has limited or stopped access to five of its regional centers.

“If you’re in crisis, you need access. There’s no time to work out a budget,” Nalker said.

The move is also putting pressure on Community Mental Health Centers that work in conjunction with the state and may not be reimbursed for their work, he said.

Lori Brown is director of the South Mississippi Regional Center in Long Beach, which is part of the state agency serving the six South Mississippi counties. It has 120 residential beds.

SMRC stopped all admissions effective April 21, she said.

Satisfying the budget cuts: “We won’t recruit to fill 22 vacant positions through reorganization. We will maintain and not expand residential services.”

“We have community programs that serve 80 (community homes). They won’t be discharged because of cuts,” she said. SMRC has about 500 in the Home and Community Based Waiver program.

Other losses

In other action, the DMH will close a unit that houses mentally ill children and teenagers at East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian, which is considered a South Mississippi facility.

That will increase the distance Coast families have to travel for inpatient care for children. East Mississippi will be consolidated with a similar unit at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, near Jackson. DMH said both have empty beds.

That closure will result in 73 layoffs, although employees will be able to apply for other jobs.

Also the agency will transfer the last crisis stabilization unit that it runs directly, at Central Mississippi Residential Center in DeKalb, to Meridian-based Weems Community Mental Health Center. The department says it will pay Weems out of its service budget. That change will result in 52 layoffs, but Mental Health said employees can apply for jobs with Weems.

As the state agency stopped admitting new patients to the five regional centers, as well as nursing homes at Meridian and Whitfield, it plans to cut jobs at each location, according to a spokesman for MDH, who said fewer employees means fewer patients can be cared for. However, admissions are likely to resume once staff and patient numbers are cut to lower levels, he said.

Sherman Blackwell, director of the not-for-profit Singing River Services, a mental health center for Jackson and George counties, said he was assured that vital programs, like case management and psychosocial rehabilitation, won’t be touched in this round of cuts. However, more cuts may be coming, he said.

“We feel like we’re going to be OK this year. But this is the beginning,” he said. “There’s an indication cuts will be ongoing.”

It is all tied to trying to get Mississippi to rely less on hospitalization and mental institutions for mental health care.

“It’s complicated. It’s not as simple as having a tooth pulled. Its an old system,” he said, “but Mississippi is headed toward more community-based services.”

The people waiting for the Community Based Waivers is an ever increasing population, he said. This is where people get to come to a day center or have a chance to learn a skill and how to function.

“The $64,000 question is how all this will affect the Coast,” he said. “Anytime you use the word cut, there are going to be people who will not get some of the services they need ... as opposed to expansion. In some areas they have used the words, status quo.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Those with disabilities waiting for help will have to wait longer."