Thursday, 4:30 PM
Mental Health officials poised to freeze admissions to state psych hospitals
By Carey Goldberg, GLOBE STAFF
The Department of Mental Health appears poised to go ahead with its plan to freeze admissions to state psychiatric hospitals Wednesday in response to recent budget cuts, despite intensive meetings with Romney administration officials who want the agency to find less painful ways to reduce spending.
The department has notified private hospitals that "admissions are shut down starting tomorrow until further notice, and we haven’t gotten any further notice," David Matteodo, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems, said Tuesday.
Governor Mitt Romney’s spokesman said administration budget staffers have been in talks with the Department of Mental Health since Monday and have proposed alternative cuts, including $700,000 that the agency has budgeted for management consultants and $1.7 million that would have paid for 64 additional employees.
The agency has been told to cut about $7 million from a total budget of $640 million, but advocates for the mentally ill said that because the cuts come at mid-year, their impact is actually double, adding up to $14 million on an annual basis.
Romney cut $425 million from the state budget on Nov. 10, blaming the Legislature for putting the state into a spending crisis by transferring money from the rainy day fund. Romney vetoed the transfer, and lawmakers did not override it, leaving a deficit.
In response, Mental Health Commissioner Elizabeth Childs plans to reduce spending on hospital staffing by $1.9 million, meaning some of the 850 or so beds in the hospitals would have to be left empty. The agency also plans to cut services to the mentally ill in the community. Advocates for the mentally ill on Monday circulated an analysis estimating that 170 agency jobs would have to be eliminated.
Asked Tuesday whether state hospital admissions would indeed cease on Wednesday, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said, "That was in a proposed plan submitted by the Department of Mental Health and it has not been finalized.
"We’re working with them on a more realistic set of budget cuts," he said. "And while we’re insistent on the 1 percent cut, we’re flexible on where they can take it from their budget, and I think it can be done in ways that don’t result in major program reductions."
Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com.
