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

How much would Utahans have saved by providing Mitchell mental heath care? The university shooter in Virgina was recommended for hospitalization in a mental health facility, but Virgina had underfunded mental health. We never seem to learn.

How much of an impact did the Legislature budget cuts have on the layoffs of the Valley Mental Health personnel? What will people do who have bipolar or schizophrenia? I think it is sad that so many people are being layed off.

We all have to live with our budgets, the same goes for government and community agencies. We can't afford to be all things to all people, we have to prioritize. We need to decide which clients are most in need of services, generally those who pose a risk to self or others, and make them a priority. There are many receiving services at Valley who are there because they are court ordered to receive counselling but who are not sincerely interested in improving their situations, they are going through the motions.

being bipolar for 20 years i wonder if cutbacks for the blind or other disabled people would be considered with the same carelessness also for Budget would she/he prefer no court ordered care

No entity is immune from the pain of this recession. It's painful, but cuts must be done. Maybe it's time for MH advocates to step up to the plate and work out alternative services for clients they think may fall through the net.

There're a lot of scared Social Workers out there over this issue. We seem to have a glut of them. As a result, most Social Workers in MH front-line positions already don't get good pay. And, too many of them lack transferable or marketable skills in other vocations. I know one who's selling shoes now and making what she was with MH.

I've with Budget on this one, we can't fund everything. If people are genuinely interested in receiving services and are willing to make the effort to benefit from the therapeutic services offered that's one thing but many court-ordered clients are going through the motions and their therapists know it but never terminate the case if the client is technically "compliant" by showing up for appointments because they court ordered them to.

Mitchell would have fallen into the clincal catergory where he was a potential danger to self and others and would have received treatment but I bet it would not have helped him. We do not have unlimited resources and deep pockets unless you want to pay higher, much higher taxes. We have to consider all resources and use creativity. Sometimes there are just no easy solutions and suffering is inevitable but hopefully we can identify the most in need to serve first.

There is so much more to this story, and yet no one is looking into it. Look at a Legislative Auditors' report of 2003 on Valley Mental Health and how it spends taxpayers' money. Look at a spinoff LLC of valley that is deeply in debt to valley for loans that come from taxpayers money -- all in service of failed ideas and products that have only this or last year earned a small profit, the loans from valley and taxpayers still unpaid. Its employees -- all actually valley employees earning large salaries -- will not be touched by the cutbacks. Look into $2,500 bonuses given last year to dozens of goood old boy, good old girls who are part of an organization that is decidely not a meritocracy. These bonuses were given even though valley adminstrators knew of the hard times ahead. Valley insiders say bonuses will be paid again this year. That these things haven't been exposed begs the question of whether this society actually cares about the mentally ill.

The social workers, therapists, and doctors do important work and we should demand that we keep these important services. I have a bi-polar disorder and have sought assistance in a different city but the same kind of facility and it really helped me. The people that worked there were very caring and had a big impact on my life.

It is very frustrating to see how bad the economy is. I wish the stimulus would have gone to the states to keep important services like this operating until the economy comes back. Our government is failing us and come 2010 and 2012 we need to completely clean house.