La. mental health program to cease

At the same time Gov. Bobby Jindal is launching a study committee on school safety, his administration is cutting a program that helps children with behavioral health problems.

The Early Childhood Supports and Services program will stop providing assessment, counseling and case management to young children in low-income families at the end of the month. The program employs 76 people, who will lose their positions.

The $2.8 million the program is slated to receive in federal funds over the next five months will be used elsewhere in the $25 billion state operating budget to supplant state dollars. Weak state tax collections, coupled with education expenses, forced the governor to trim the operating budget by $166 million.

Jindal did not agree to an interview on the issue. But he said in a prepared statement Monday that children with intensive needs can seek help from pediatricians, family resource centers or nonprofit groups.

“The 540 youth and families currently served through this program are being reviewed by DHH to determine their ongoing needs and identify resources for ongoing support,” Jindal said. DHH is the state Department of Health and Hospitals.

The Jindal administration contends the program was inefficient, and children can receive help in other ways. The program’s proponents said their concern is that the program’s demise will result in children receiving medication but not therapy or going on waiting lists.

“I’m just very concerned about where our priorities lie as a state,” said Janet Ketcham, executive director of the McMains Children’s Developmental Center in Baton Rouge.

The Early Childhood Supports and Services program serves Orleans, East Baton Rouge, Terrebonne, Lafayette, St. Tammany and Ouachita parishes. The program is for children under the age of 6 who are considered at-risk of developing social, emotional or developmental problems.

Ketcham wrote Jindal asking him to reconsider the program’s elimination. She said the program’s services are more critical than ever in light of the Connecticut school shootings.

Twenty children and six adults died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. Adam Lanza, who was believed to have mental health problems, allegedly shot and killed his mother before driving to the school and opening fire. Lanza later took his own life.

Last week, the governor formed a study committee to identify needed improvements at schools and colleges following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings.

He formed the committee weeks after making the budget cuts.

Dr. Mary Margaret Gleason, co-clinical director of Early Childhood Support and Services, said the program helped families meet basic needs such as ensuring access to food and child care centers while also addressing mental health problems.

She said children routinely came to the program for help with aggressive behavior, anxiety issues or post traumatic stress disorder. The program offered assistance specific to their developmental problem, she said.

“What we know is that early childhood intervention ... can have long-lasting effects,” Gleason said.

Without that intervention, children likely will suffer, triggering long-term treatment costs, she said.

Ketcham said her disappointment in the governor’s decision is compounded by the fact that she was vying for a grant to collaborate with Early Childhood Support and Services to make it easier for parents to connect their children to speech therapists.

“Now I have to withdraw the grant,” she said.

State Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein said the program, which ends Feb. 1, was on the road map for elimination. The midyear budget cuts, he said, only accelerated the program’s demise. “It’s not necessarily the most efficient program,” he said.

Greenstein said children can receive help through the state’s mental health network, called Louisiana Behavioral Health Partnership.

He said Early Childhood Support and Services program costs, on average, $2,200 a year per child.

He said the Jindal administration is confident children can be treated for less money, although net savings have not been calculated.

“My interest is to be able to provide the services not just to six parishes but across the state,” Greenstein said.

Comments

1) Comment by CitizensArrest - 09/01/2013

Amen Noel. People hate statistics though. Especially in this age of fear driven "news" and media. Violent crime is down 50% in the last 20 years. England has 3 times the violent crime rate of the the US, and guns are banned there. People just beat one another with bats, hammers or clubs. Or get stabby. How civilized. Your child is much more likely to be killed by your spouse than in some random shooting by a man with a history of mental illness that tried to buy guns 5 times in a month but was refused. Let's ban marriage. It's more dangerous than "assault weapons"

2) Comment by agagent - 09/01/2013

The reporter should have placed some facts about the success/failures of the program in the article. Otherwise the article was just to sensationalize the topic.

3) Comment by ScotB - 09/01/2013

One thing that routinely happens in the private sector that you almost never see in government, espcecially in public education - measurement of success. For those who wanted to keep this program alive, where are your statistics. Since this was only partially implemented in some parishes, where are your comparisons with those parishes not "lucky" enough to have this program? How about a before the program existed comparison to now? You'll never see such a report because there is none, and if there were, the results might not justify continuing the program. You can bet that at any business in the capital region, if a department is spending $2.8M, they have to show where it produces measureable, tangible benefits.

4) Comment by normwolfe - 08/01/2013

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5) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 08/01/2013

As we cut mental health programs for young children, and at the same time Jindal is calling for safer schools, perhaps we (again) need a bit of perspective here. As we seek to respond to the recent tragedy, we need to keep a sense of perspective, I believe. Without in any way minimizing the horror of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I think it is important to maintain a bit more perspective about the relative risk of our young children being killed at school. In the year that included the horrors of Columbine, there were a total of 33 murders of adults and children at school or during transportation to or from school or related school activities. During that same year, 2374 school age children were murdered. So in that year, school related murders made up a little over 1.3% of all school age children murdered that year. Considering that school age children spend approximately 17% of their time in school... if schools were as dangerous as all other locations, we might expect schools to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 murders. Obviously schools are much safer for students than the home and neighborhood, when it comes to murder. In the 2009- 2010 school year, there were 25 murders of students and adults in schools or during transportation and school related activities. During that same year there were three killings in schools by armed officers. During that year, murders at school represented far less than 2% of all murders of school age children. In fact, the Department of Justice has not found a year where school-related deaths represented over 2% of all school-age murders. Again, this is an indication that deaths caused by school shootings are not nearly as prevalent as the murder of students outside of schools. Ask hospitals when their pediatric emergency room doctors are busiest. I can assure you it is NOT during school time. Now, do children fight and get hurt at school? Yes, they always have. Any teacher will tell you that kids in some of the roughest schools fight at school, knowing they will be suspended or expelled, and will tell the teachers, in a moment of honesty, why they fight at school! (Hint, they are less likely to face a gun, knife, or death at school fighting than they would on the street.) In the 1996-1997 School year Louisiana was tied for the second highest murder rate in the nation for children aged 0-17, at 5.4 murders per 100,000 juveniles. None of these took place at school. http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/pdf/homicidechildrenyouth.pdf Here is what the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention said in their report in 2001: "Available data do not suggest that schools are particularly risky places for homicide victimization, nor do they show that schools are becoming increasingly risky." Whenever we were faced with a question of policy, especially in response to a particularly tragic event, I always asked this question of the School Board and Administration: "What is the opportunity-cost of their proposed solution." In very simple terms, the opportunity-cost is the cost of one solution as opposed to other alternative solutions. What other options are lost in taking one particular approach. To take it out of the immediate realm and lessen the emotional response, I will point out a similar question I raised when there were students killed in a bus accident in the US... parents and legislators immediately talked about installing seat belts on all busses. Would it save lives? Possibly. Here was just one question I raised in testimony at the legislature. "If we were required to retrofit all older busses, and have all new busses equipped with seat belts, what would this do to our ability to purchase new busses, which are much safer in terms of new technology for keeping students safe than the older busses." Luckily, the National Traffic and Safety Administration had a study in the works. It found that there was little increase in safety, overall, for students. The costs would have prevented us from replacing much older busses with new, safer busses as well. In addition, there would be a net financial loss to the district due to forgoing to more fuel-efficient newer busses. I am amazed that people commenting on here often criticize some of us saying, "all you care about is money!" Amazing considering that somehow basic economics seems to be denied in the statement. Funding is finite, yet needs and desirable services in schools are not so finite. IF we put seat belts on ALL busses, there would not be money for some other purposes! In the case of safety officers for schools, let's just imagine what the opportunity cost might be. Let's use some round numbers. With over 1300 public schools in the state, and fewer than 300 having full-time security at the schools, we will use a round number of 1000 schools to equip with armed security guards. What shall we pay them? We certainly don't want minimum wage (most of the current security is provided via trained law-enforcement personnel, costing districts well over $50,000 per year per school) so we will use a round number of $50,000 per school per year. Now keep in mind, this is not going to be enough for large schools, but we will use this number for now. So, $50,000 times 1000 schools currently without protection, we get a total of 50 million dollars a year. Not a particularly large number some might say, but what would making that choice entail? In the absence of new funds, a likely scenario, what cuts would have to be made to existing programs? Cuts in social workers, school counselors? The very people likely to be of assistance in identifying students who might be having some violent tendencies (if only these employees weren't so busy supporting the test-taking mania of the "reformers), would we cut their positions? Schools are the safest places for kids, and please, we all know and understand that the particular schools in the recent tragedies are NOT the norm, yet overall schools are the safest places for school age children. Both the Department of Justice and the National Center for Education Statistics bear this out. I note that specialized programs for dealing with adolescent violence and mental health are being cut, and schools have had their budgets cut to the bone, while at the same time we are calling for more school safety. As we seek to deal with the tragedies, let's keep all options open, and not respond to knee- jerk reactions that are best described as "do something--even if it is wrong!" Our children deserve better.

6) Comment by RODEO CLOWN - 08/01/2013

Perhaps Jindal could provide an explanation as to why state revenues for 2011 were 2.10 billion dollars lower than in 2008-the year he “ascended” into office. Assuming state collections were the same level in 2011 as collections were in 2008, i.e., assuming no new taxes, there would have been more than enough revenue to cover all the cuts Jindal has made/continues to make to state expenditures. If anyone/anywhere doubts what is being written, I direct their attention to the 2011 Louisiana Dept of Revenue annual report, pg 16, Five Year Revenue Collections Comparisons. The top chart clearly shows how revenues across the board have decreased since Jindal's first year in office. These cuts have passed the point of ridiculous. It's time Jindal is impeached and a chief executive concerned with the citizens is placed in his place.

7) Comment by Lovemysiberian - 08/01/2013

There is no Cast system in the United States. At least not yet!

8) Comment by Lovemysiberian - 08/01/2013

Shame on you, Bobby Jindal! When I was a child, my Mother was treated for a mental illness at the State Mental Hospital in Mandeville. She tried to commit suicide several times before the treatment. She was treated successfully and lived as a contributing citizen, wife, mother and grandmother for 45 years after her treatment. She was a successful and caring nurse at an a New Orleans hospital where she treated babies in the ICU, and care for cancer patients. She was a community volunteer and coninually gave of her time and money to charitable organizations. I'm sure that my parents paid way more in taxes over the years than the cost of her treatment. She touched so many lives in a positive way. I ask that you, Jindal, look inside of your heart for the Lord's guidance.

9) Comment by twinkie1cat - 08/01/2013

$2200 per year to keep or get a child mentally healthy and functional versus $30,000 a year when he blows up the school as well as the Social Security of $700 per month per child someone's kids get until they are 22 when their parents are killed by a mentally ill serial or mass killer And then they need couseling and medication themselves. Great job Bobby, wonderful money saving and budget balancing. I hope you fall off the porch of the mansion and break your neck so you will require long term health care and mental health counseling from the traumatic brain injury yourself.

10) Comment by twinkie1cat - 08/01/2013

Good old Pyush! He cancels the programs that people need and will help keep us safe---like helping children deal with their mental health problems so they won't get so mad they take a gun to school and promotes things that cause us harm, all in the name of budget cutting. Of course now if a person makes it through to being a senior citizen, he is going to put them in hell where they will die alone to punish them for being sick or old. And that's after he denies them a public education so they can get a job where they get benefits, which of course he cuts off by firing the state employees. Aren't yall sick of him yet. Contact your legislator, especially those who are represented by Republicans and tell them that if they don't get a movement started to remove Bobby Jindal from office immediately when the legislature goes into session that THEY will be recalled. Then the second step is to rescind everything he has done so far in his second term. Just do it! He does not deserve another month in office. We need sensible tax increases-- especially on higher income people, fewer tax breaks for businesses, increases on taxes on alcohol and cigarettes with the money going to the public, community school board controlled schools ONLY and health care. Then we need marijuana legalized and sold under a liquor license in stores with a tax and same sex marriage which will add to the revenue of the state through marriage licenses.

11) Comment by Mygulfbleedsforu - 08/01/2013

This is what makes me sick. Okay, ONE of the things that makes me sick. This and other badly needed services are being underfunded or eliminated, year by year, by Jindal and his mid-year magic marker. But no one is getting a tax reduction for this effort, and to reinstate any of these programs, much less all of them, will require ... you guessed it ... tax increases. Everything about Wonder-boy's apparent mis-management of public funds really stinks. Why were we able to do this before he was in office?

12) Comment by squiggly - 08/01/2013

So now we will have 540 potential Charles Mansions running around. Then we will have to pay about $30,000 / yr to keep them in prison vs. paying $2,200 / yr to get to get them the needed treatment early on and prevent future expenses. Good going Governor.

13) Comment by CitizensArrest - 08/01/2013

This is sickening. Did anybody consider cutting the pay of the legislative and executive branch before sending critically ill people back to the streets? Short-sighted per usual.

14) Comment by phil - 08/01/2013

Would like to hear from NAMI on this one.

15) Comment by Scrooge - 08/01/2013

Obviously this program is no longer necessary since there is no mental health in Louisiana.

16) Comment by Michael Gary Scott - 08/01/2013

@lovemykids, it is naive to think that Jindal doesn't know what he is doing to the state. He knows perfectly well and doesn't care about anyone or anything other than himself.

17) Comment by Michael Gary Scott - 08/01/2013

Those children and familes served either can't or won't vote for Jindal and can't advance his career, of course this program must go, or be sold to an out of state corporation that can help his career.

18) Comment by sweetly - 08/01/2013

OH MY GOD...What a shame. My daughter went through the ECSS program and greatly benefited from it, as well as myself with individual, group, and family therapy. I have to say that I m utterly disgusted and appalled at this decision from a man that has not a single clue what it's like to raise a child with special needs that NEEDS mental health care. Does he actually believe that our kids are benefiting through the healthcare of their pediatricians? Should our children be subjected to guinea pig types of medications without the benefit of therapy? I call ***** on this.

19) Comment by shad-o - 08/01/2013

What a travesty. Jindal has done things that are going to hurt Louisiana for a long time.

20) Comment by lovemykids - 08/01/2013

The scary part is that Jindal really thinks he is helping the citizens of the state of LA.

21) Comment by Get Real - 08/01/2013

Piyush really has the best interest of the state in mind. We are going to be model for how to screw up education and have the private sector come in with those high paying quality jobs. Go Piyush

22) Comment by cbelse1 - 08/01/2013

Jindal's education golden boy John White is also proposing changes to Bulletin 741, one of which is the mandate that secondary schools staff counselors at a ratio of 450:1. John White would rather make this a recommendation, rather than policy. This would open the door for districts to staff counselors at a much higher rate or not staff them at all. Schools are sometimes the only place that some students have access to mental health services. Please contact your BESE representative and help us stop this change!!