House adds $1.4m for mental health

“We felt that clearly we needed to do our very best to commit a better level of funding to family support services, rehab services, and the like, and certainly around mental health, particularly adolescent mental health, community mental health services, we tried to do better than the recommendation’’ proposed in Governor Deval Patrick’s budget, House budget chief Brian Dempsey, Democrat of Haverhill, said during House floor debate.

The amendment, which passed 155 to 0, adds tens of thousands of dollars for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, acute mental health services, independent living assistance services, and services for the deaf and hard of hearing.

The consolidated amendment authorized the Department of Mental Health to access $5.6 million in “one time trust fund monies’’ — which Dempsey said had been identified as House members reviewed the budget — to “expand community services,’’ including about $558,000 for clubhouses. Those funds would only become accessible after the department issues a report on the number of residents at inpatient facilities expected to be discharged in the upcoming fiscal year. The amendment also adds $500,000 for contracted autism services and requires at least $3 million of funds in that item be spent on a “Children’s Autism Spectrum Disorder Waiver.’’

In addition, the amendment includes a policy change that would require the Patrick administration to detail its plans for closing any of its major developmental disability inpatient facilities, the Fernald Center in Waltham, the Glavin Regional Center in Shrewsbury, the Monson Developmental Center in Palmer, and the Templeton Developmental Center in Baldwinville.

Lawmakers excluded from the proposal an amendment filed by state Representative Ann Gobi, Democrat of Spencer, that would have required independent study before Glavin, Monson, and Templeton could be closed. During a discussion of the amendment, Gobi said she looked forward to a hearing later in the year on whether to delay the closure of the facilities.

The Association of Development Disabilities Providers had argued against the amendment, saying that the large institutions that serve developmentally disabled patients — there are six institutions across the state — have become “expensive and inefficient to operate.’’

At the Fernald Redevelopment Center, for example, the cost of housing some patients has nearly quadrupled in recent years, according to the association. Gary Blumenthal, executive director of the association, pointed to documents from the state Department of Developmental Services that show that the annual cost per patient at Fernald has risen to $917,000 per year from $235,000 per person two years ago, largely because of the cost of administrative appeals from those oppose to shutting down the facility.

At the other five institutions, the annual cost per person ranges from $182,000 to $281,000, according to the Department of Developmental Services document.

“While we respect the sincerity of Rep. Gobi and her regional colleagues who wish to protect the local developmental center within their legislative communities,’’ advocates for the developmentally disabled wrote in a letter to lawmakers yesterday, “we believe that further delaying tactics will only cause further delay of the inevitable, creating more heartache for families who need the certainty of planning for their loved ones.’’

Gobi’s amendment would have delayed the closing of the Glavin Regional Center, the Monson Development Center, and the Templeton Development Center until a study was completed by Dec. 1 that included “the number and names of all private nonprofit vendors who contract with the [Department of Developmental Services] to provide direct care in the community, the amount of state and federal resources paid to those vendors in fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011 and the amount of clients served by these private nonprofit vendors in each of those fiscal years.’’