100 layoffs at Valley Mental Health will affect patients, other providers

People with mental illnesses trying to blend into the community are worried they'll find themselves outcasts because of a $10 million budget deficit at the outpatient clinics they consider a necessary safety net.

"There's nowhere else to go, this is it," one woman told a Valley Mental Health staff member who is among 100 to 125 employees who will be laid off by the end of the year to help make up for county, state and federal budget shortfalls.

"These cuts are causing a lot of anxiety and feelings of despair and panic attacks that these folks already have as it is," a part-time staff member said Wednesday, noting that no matter how well the cuts are absorbed, "they are going to have real effects on the people who are struggling just to get through the day."

Valley Mental Health has seven locations in Salt Lake, Summit and Tooele counties that offer mental-health and substance-abuse assessments and addiction therapy.

Several people said many of their friends or family members receiving care are at least in part dealing with psychoses either directly related to or made worse by substance abuse.

The cuts couldn't come at a worse time. County and state mental-health and substance-abuse agencies, as well as area emergency shelter providers, estimate that just under 20,000 people in the Salt Lake area need services, but there is only room for 1,800 to receive inpatient and outpatient services.

"Add the fact that more and more people are being roughed up by the economy, and the urge to self-medicate or relapse or just let a mental illness take over completely often gets unbearable," said Terrell Young, a recovering addict and substance-abuse counselor at the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake. "And it's not just the guys who come here, it's the shirts and ties in the offices downtown."

Along with cuts for Valley Mental Health, which contracts with the state for mental-health services and receives funding from county, state and federal government agencies, seven people with the state Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health have also been laid off. The state and county rely on Valley to help keep people mainstreamed and functioning in the community as much as possible.

On Tuesday, families and friends of people with mental illness gathered to brainstorm ways to deal with pending layoffs.

Just because the funding goes away doesn't mean the needs do, group members said, noting that other service providers, such as emergency rooms and jails, can expect an increased load.