Government Cuts, Local Impact: Mental Health Resources Could be Jeopardized by Cuts, Budget Impasse

by Susan Shelly McGovern

Richie Santiago spends five or six hours on most weekdays at the Circle of Friends Drop-In Center on North Fifth Street in Reading, playing pool, chatting with friends, enjoying home-cooked meals and helping staff members with cleanup chores.

“I’m from New Jersey and don’t have any family here,” said Richie, who lives near the center. “If I didn’t have this place to come to it would hurt. This place benefits me a lot.”

Richie is one of about 235 people served annually by the center, which is run by Community Prevention Partnership/CHOR, an agency that provides a variety of prevention services in Berks and Schuylkill counties.

According to Barbara Werner, executive director of Community Prevention Partnership, the Circle of Friends Drop-In Center, which serves people living with chronic mental health conditions, lives up to its name.

“It provides clients with a circle of support,” Werner explained. “Not everyone has a support system they can lean on when something goes wrong, but the center gives them that.”

Sadly, the future of Circle of Friends is not guaranteed.

The center, which normally receives Community Services Block Grant funds – federal funds administered through states – is currently being supported by the Children’s Home of Reading (CHOR) Youth and Family Services, an agency that oversees various organizations, including Community Prevention Partnership.

CHOR-Youth and Family Services has been forced to pick up the tab because Block Grant money is stalled due to Pennsylvania’s budget impasse, a stalemate that has prevented many agencies from receiving expected funding since July.

“We are able to keep the center operating for now because we’re part of a larger organization,” Werner said. “But I’m not sure that CHOR’s funding can go on indefinitely.”

Having to shut down the center, she said, would be extremely detrimental to clients.

“The center helps meet people’s basic needs. We provide meals and social activities and a shower and laundry facilities,” she said. “That all helps keep our clients as mentally and physically stable as possible.”

A Widespread Problem

Pamela Seaman, administrator of the Berks County Mental Health/Development Disabilities Program, said the lack of Block Grant funding has caused widespread problems throughout Berks and other counties.

In addition to Community Prevention Partnership, area agencies providing mental health services that have been affected include Threshold Rehabilitation Services, Inc., the county’s Crisis Intervention Services, Connections Work and others.

“As of now, we haven’t heard of any of these agencies having to shut down, but we know that some are having to cut services and are worried about how long they can continue operating,” Seaman said. “Those Block Grant funds support a lot of services.”

Dr. Edward B. Michalik, president/chief executive officer of Threshold, confirmed that the agency’s residential programs have been affected by the lack of Block Grant funds.

Those programs include the Community Hospital Integration Project Program (CHIPP), which supports individuals with serious mental illnesses who are reintegrating into the community following release from a state mental hospital, and Community Residential Rehabilitation Services, which provides licensed residential rehabilitation services for individuals.

Both programs have been very successful over long periods of time, he explained, and discontinuing them is not an option.

“The people we serve would be homeless,” Michalik said. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

While the programs are continuing to operate, Michalik has put off making upgrades and improvements to some of the group homes and is looking at the possibility of having to seek a line of credit.

“If we need to do that, we’ll have to use money from some of our programming to pay the interest on the loan,” he said. “We’ve been told that we won’t get reimbursed for the cost of interest.”

Four Months is ‘Long Enough’

Funding stoppages caused by the state budget impasse may be causing long-lasting damage, but the lack of a state budget also is causing short-term problems, according to Berks County Commissioner Michael S. Rivera.

“We have no idea how much money the county will be getting this year,” Rivera said. “We’re guessing and hoping we’ll get at least as much as last year, but we just don’t know.”

That makes it nearly impossible to enter contracts or plan for future spending.

Berks County has reserve funds that are enabling it to continue operations but is losing money it would have earned as interest on those reserves.

In addition, there is uncertainty over federal funding sources other than through the Block Grant program.

“That’s also a day-to-day process of trying to figure out what might happen,” Rivera said.

While Michalik said he takes no sides on the issue of the budget impasse, he is surprised that state legislators have been unable or unwilling to work together to pass a spending bill.

“I don’t know what they’re thinking, but this is like a perfect storm that agencies are struggling to weather,” he said. “I think that four months is long enough.”