 | Therapy feels the pinch |
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Funding cuts create a bind for mental illness counselors
BY RICHARD ABSHIRE/ Garland Morning news
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Mental illness Awareness week, Oct, 3-9, found caregivers needing some help themselves.
"2004 has been an extremely difficult year for Galaxy, " said Elaine Ply, executive director of Galaxy Counseling Center, 1025 S. Jupiter Rd. "We have had funding cuts in a number of areas. Donations have not come in as a result of the economy."
The state cut funding for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
"We are needing to bring in over $50,000 by the end of the year to be able to serve our clients," Dr. Ply said. "We really need the community to help."
Psychotherapist Alina Esquivel who has helped a lot of parents and children in her five years at Galaxy, worries about the budget cuts that may put the clinic's services out of reach for lower-income families.
She recently counseled a 14-year-old boy referred by school counselors because of the morbid tone of poems he wrote in class.
Ms. Esquivel worked with him and his parents to help them understand his needs and the effects their divorce was having on him.
"Hopefully, he will stay in school," Ms Esquivel said. "He's at risk but not as much as some others."
She carries a caseload of about 20 clients in addition to her work with Truancy Intervention and Prevention, a program aimed at keeping elementary students in school.
"It costs us $110 to deliver an hour of counseling," said Amy Walton, development director at the clinic. "We are losing about $10 per session this year over last year as a direct result of state-level funding cuts. We'll probably do 5,000 sessions this year. That means a loss of $50,000 that has to be made up from other sources."
Registration for the clinic's annual fund-raiser -- "Shooting for the Stars" is available by calling 972-272-4429. Ms. Walton said she is hoping the even will yield record-braking donations.
"We are at the very bottom of states that value funding for mental health," she said. "Mental health affects so many areas of people's lives - work, parenting and school,"
The National Mental Health Association estimates that 20 percent of children and 22 percent of adults in the United States suffer from some form of mental illness, Ms. Walton said.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and human Services, mental Illness Awareness Week originated by presidential proclamation in 1990 to focus attention on the prevalence of mental illness in the United States, to educate Americans about the problem, and to help remove the stigma that mental illness often bears.
Mental illnesses include depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism and Alzheimer's disease.
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