Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 1 of 3 · from the scan, no model involved
A request has been put before the county’s Board of Supervisors for a resolution in support of $42 million of the sitate’s current budget surplus to be allocated for increases in fbnding for mental health and mental retardation programs.
For the past few years, the trend in treating mentally ill individuals has been to remove them from the institutional setting and allow them to live in society, with as much freedom as they are able to manage. It’s a wonderful concept, and a commendable and long-overdue alternative to the inhumane methods which were used to “treat” such patients just a few short decades ago.
Unfortunately, during the same period the federal government has been steadily cutting the amount which it cbntributes for just such social service programs. The budgetary priorities of the present administration do not, it seems, include the least fortunate American people.
As a result, the states and localities have been left to pick Up a larger share of the tab for mental health and mental retardation services. £ More than half of the 16,000 patients in state hospital fc^ds when the de-institutionalization plan began in 1968 have been returned to local communities. However, the state has not adjusted the formula by which mental health monies are earmarked. State hospitals still receive 84 percent of the money, according to figures presented to the Board of Supervisors, although they now house only about one-third of
tj>e state’s mentally^p^ientp,
little fro-cocofvty Planning DisWictS, whichimbdek > Rappahannock, an average of 110 patients per year have been deinstitutionalized since 1982. That’s an additional 550 people who will require some type of social support services. But there’s been no increase in funding to provide those services.
93.4%