Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Cuts More Than 100 Case Managers: the Tip of the Iceberg?

By Stephen L. Day, Technical Assistance Collaborative

I had just returned from a business trip and saw a copy of the recent Boston Globe article about the lay-off of 100 case managers. This is just the tip of the iceberg as states all across the country seek to balance budgets in the face of severely restricted revenues. It is likely there will be many more direct care staff layoffs and cuts in other community services and supports affecting thousands of people with disabilities before the economic situation improves.

There’s so much bad news facing so many of us right now that it’s hard not to lose sight of what these layoffs really mean in human terms.

The 100 case managers being laid off are probably serving about 3,000 individuals and families. Every one of these people and families has a case manager because they have a serious mental disability that makes it difficult for them to live successfully in their homes and communities.

Case managers help people get and keep the supports they need to live as independently as possible and to remain integrated in their communities. But more importantly, case managers represent a trusted human relationship with a caring person. For many people with mental disabilities this trusting relationship is essential to their own personal pathways towards recovery and self-sufficiency. This trusted relationship is more than the bureaucratic function of service planning and linking people to services. It is frequently the primary bridge between a person’s isolation and disconnection from society and their potential to find a way back to community living.

All of us depend on trusting relationships with people who support us in various ways. And all of us need human contact and support to make our ways in the world. Without the on-going support and trusting relationship with a case manager, some people with mental illness have no source of this support – no one to give them a hand as they struggle to overcome and learn to live successfully with their disability.

When you see homeless people with mental illness, or when you see people with mental illness being jailed for petty offenses, think about the fact that they might not have had a trusted relationship with some caring person who could help them in their journey away from homelessness or jail and towards self sufficiency in the community. When case managers are laid off, the people with disabilities that they serve are likely to become disconnected from sources of support in their communities. The short term savings attained through the lay-offs are more than likely to result in higher costs shelters, emergency rooms, inpatient acute acre, and jails.

What do you think? How can we ensure that those with disabilities continue to have access to the supports they may need in the face of ongoing cutbacks?


About the Author
Stephen L. Day is co-founder and Executive Director of the Technical Assistance Collaborative, a national non-profit organization that works to achieve positive outcomes on behalf of people with disabilities, people who are homeless, and people with other special needs. Steve has provided consultation and technical assistance to 35 states, over 100 local jurisdictions, and numerous national policy and advocacy organizations.

National Alliance to End Homelessness Publishes Interactive Map with State by State Data on Homelessness

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, an implementing partner for Funders Together, has published the new edition of Homelessness Counts, documenting changes in homelessness populations from 2005 to 2007, looking more closely at changes at the state level and among subpopulations.

Features of this report include:

• Comprehensive reporting in maps and tables of changes in chronic, family, unsheltered, and total homelessness at the national, state and community (CoC) level.
  
• Identification of the states and communities with the highest and lowest levels of homelessness (by subpopulation) and the largest changes in homelessness.
  
• An interactive, online map that features state profiles of homelessness characteristics, changes in homelessness from 2005 to 2007, and the economic indicators (unemployment, poverty, housing affordability) most closely associated with homelessness.
  
• Click here to access the interactive map.
  

Google Maps of Ten Year Plans and Permanent Supportive Housing Programs, Around the Country

Interested in finding out which cities and regions around the country have completed Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness, or want to find your local plan? Drawing upon a previous collection put together by our colleagues at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, we have created the following interactive map of completed plans from around the country. To explore plans and programs in your region of the country, view the larger version of the map and drill down as you wish.


View Larger Map

You may also be interested in viewing the following map, which incorporates various examples and resources for permanent supportive housing programs around the country:


View Larger Map

Hint: As you Zoom In on the second map, be sure to occasionally click on "Search Maps" to bring up new results within the region you are focusing on.

Neighborhood Stabilization Program-Funding Resource for Continuums of Care

In early October HUD annouced $3.92 billion in community allocations for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Foundations that are involved with their communities efforts to end homelessness are encouraged to pass the following information on to local developers and homeless service organizations.

According to HUD, their community based allocations for the NSP are worth taking advantage of:

"Because most communities' special needs housing resources are tied up in renewals of existing projects, NSP offers an unparalleled opportunity to fund new projects. For NSP grantees, funding special needs housing projects that provide permanent supportive housing will help them meet the 25/50 targeting requirement. There are many possible models that communities could use. For example, an NSP grantee could acquire and rehabilitate a single-family or multi- family home and 'dispose' the property to a nonprofit. Alternately, vacant property could be redeveloped into permanent supportive housing units for persons with special needs."

25% of the funding must be used to house persons at or below 50% of the area median income (AMI). Projects are encouraged to include individuals and families who are homeless, those living with HIV/AIDS and low income veterans. Community plans (submitted in the form of an amendment to the local Community Development Block Grant Action Plan) are due to HUD on December 1 - therefore it is important to get involved quickly.

HUD will provide additional information via the NSP website as it becomes available.