State Mental Health Services Have Been Cut By Billions During The Great Recession
/Gun control is not the only topic that’s been catapulted to the forefront of the national conversation by the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The tragedy has also brought renewed attention to what aid and support the United States provides to the mentally ill. On the second matter as well as the first, the record is not good.
According to a report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, flagged by The Washington Post, states cumulatively cut over $1.8 billion from their mental health services from 2009 to 2011. Another report by the the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors put the number as high as $4.35 billion from 2009 to 2012, according to Huffington Post. (The first report did not include Medicaid budgets, though it’s not clear if the second report did.) With a 35 percent cut to its overall state mental health budget, Alaska has seen the worst of it. South Carolina and Arizona both saw cuts of 23 percent, and plenty of other states have seen significant cut backs as well:
