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Alliance Alert: Yesterday, Alliance Policy Director Luke Sikinyi and I joined representatives from 10 other statewide mental health and addiction recovery service advocacy groups to press for a 7.8% rate hike for severely hard-pressed community agencies. Click on the links to see the powerful testimony and see the articles below. Also, see our statement at . Stay tuned for next steps!

CBS 6: Mental health agencies face funding shortages, urge 7.8% increase from governor

by Lara Bryn   WCBS 6  November 12th 2024  

Over and over we hear about the mental health crisis affecting ����������ers daily. Yet those who work in the field say while more people are turning to their agencies for help, they’re struggling to help them because they don’t have enough money to do it.

“You know, I would be dead or in jail or in a more serious situation,” said supportive housing recipient Joseph Buono. Buono knows firsthand the benefits of mental health and substance use services. “I was in and out of programs. I just couldn’t stop using. Couldn’t stop drinking. I couldn’t stop smoking. I couldn’t keep job. i couldn’t save money. I couldn’t keep a house.”

But then the Joseph’s House and Shelter helped him. He now has a home and a job and is getting his life together. Buono was one of the many people rallying at the Capitol Tuesday, urging the governor for a 7.8% increase in investments in mental health and substance use disorder services and supports. This is money that would support the providers and the places they work to cover fees, technology, increased inflation and allow the workers to do their jobs. “The reason why is that currently we have, as people have said, a workforce shortage that is staggering, our staff vacancies are between 20 and 30%, some places even more,” said FTNYS Director of DEI Kim Kaiser.

The Mental Health Association in ���������� State, the Supporting Housing Network of ���������� and National Alliance on Mental Illness, among others, all rallied and signed a letter to the governor as well. Over 17 years, they say they’ve tracked a $500 million deficit in cost of living funding for providers in the Office of Mental Health and Office of Addiction Services and Supports. “Without this funding to keep the lights on, without this funding to be able to do the important and vital outreach that all of these agencies do to wrap their arms around families and youth who are in need, without it we are lost.”

So are people like Joseph Buono. “I wanted to do this because I wanted to show my gratitude because I see that this place has helped me immensely.”

These various agencies say while Governor Hochul has been “better than most,” they say she’s still not addressing real world inflationary pressures.

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Groups Call On Hochul To Set Aside Budget Money For Mental Health, Substance Use
By WNYT  November 12, 2024

Statewide advocacy groups are calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to help mental health and substance use disorder services.

They are asking for a 7.8% raise in rates and contracts for these services in Hochul’s executive budget proposal.

These groups say ���������� state must make meaningful investments to close treatment gaps, eliminate disparities and improve access to services.

They say the demand for mental health and substance use disorder services has never been higher, yet adults, children, and families face a number of problems, including long wait lists.

The 11 agencies at the event were: Association for Community Living, Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates of ���������� State (COMPA), Families Together in ���������� State, InUnity Alliance, Mental Health Association in ���������� State, National Alliance on Mental Illness ���������� State (NAMI), ���������� State Care Management Coalition, ���������� State Coalition for Children’s Behavioral Health, NYS Council for Community Behavioral Health Care, Alliance for Rights and Recovery, and Supportive Housing Network of ����������.

Human Services Organizations Ask Hochul For 7.8% Funding Boost

The state contracts a lot of human services — like treatment for mental health and substance use — to community organizations that administer them to the public.

Those organizations have been asking the state for more money for several years in an effort to retain staff and address the rising costs that have come with inflation. They are technically supposed to get an annual funding increase by statute but that has rarely happened in the last two decades.

Hochul and the Legislature agreed to give those organizations a 2.84% cost of living adjustment  with a requirement that most of it — 1.7% — be used for worker wages. They had asked for a 3.2% increase.

They’re now asking Hochul to include a 7.8% increase in her executive budget proposal, which she’ll release in January. The Legislature has typically advocated for a higher raise than Hochul.

“Who are you going to call when you’re in desperate need?” said Glenn Liebman, CEO of the Mental Health Association of ���������� State. “You’re not calling the government to say, ‘I’m in crisis.’ You’re calling up one of our nonprofits.”