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Community services group homes to lose funding.
Home visits to families will be cut back.
Medicaid payment cuts will affect programs at clinics.
Community health centers will lose some funding.
Domestic-violence programs to get less support.
Mary Washington Hospital
A local center for abused children will face cutbacks. |
The safety net keeping at-risk Virginians off the streets and out of institutions is likely to fray under proposed state budget cuts.
Both the House and Senate money committees have suggested reductions to social services, Medicaid, child-abuse prevention programs and domestic-violence centers.
Programs serving the poor, the disabled and the abused already face rising needs and shrinking donations. And as the state tries to close a $4 billion gap in revenue, these programs face significant additional cuts.
SOCIAL SERVICES
The waiting room of the Fredericksburg Department of Social Services is often filled these days. More people have lost their jobs and now rely on food stamps and welfare.
Times are tough. And not just for the people filling out applications. The department's budget was cut for this fiscal year, and fewer social workers are available to meet the demand for services.
The department and others around Virginia face deeper cuts: 5 percent in the House budget. The proposed Senate budget suggests a 5 percent cut to the Virginia Department of Social Services but does not mention the local agencies.
Also, programs that help older Virginians with chores and companionship will be eliminated.
"We fear we will receive additional adult protective services complaints," said Janine Sewell, director of the Fredericksburg Department of Social Services.
More elderly Virginians could also end up in nursing homes, Sewell said, because families won't be able to take care of them without in-home support.
HEALTHY FAMILIES
A home-visiting program for struggling new parents faces at least $2 million in cuts in both the House and Senate budgets.
Locally, that could mean that about 60 families would not receive services. Healthy Families helps first-time parents who lack family support or financial help. Staff members visit families and connect them to local resources.
They also encourage and advise parents through the first five years of raising their children.
"Some of these families came to us extremely vulnerable. Some were homeless. Some experienced abuse as children," said Michele Powell, director of Healthy Families Rappahannock Area. "To see them now being productive, tax-paying citizens, having jobs, owning homes, taking care of their families, is just amazing."
Already this year, Powell has turned away about 25 interested families. But if the cuts go through, Powell worries she won't be able to serve any.
And that, she said, won't just hurt the families who come for help. It will impact the community because child-abuse treatment locally costs about $26,490 per family per year. Healthy Families costs about $4,000 per family per year.
SAFE HARBOR
When a child-advocacy center opened in Spotsylvania less than a year ago, area law enforcement officers and social workers cheered.
The center could provide a safe environment for abused children. And, so far, the numbers suggest that the Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center leads to more convictions of child abuse and sexual assault.
Statewide, such centers face about $400,000 in cuts.
The local center in Massaponax would lose about half its funding.
"It's a very significant cost to our community," said Director Pam Garrett. "An abuser could keep hurting more children. If these cuts happen, it's going to be detrimental to the children. How can we have a good intervention and catch the people who hurt children if we don't have the money?"
disability services
Proposed cuts could set back by decades the care of people with disabilities, advocates said. Specifically, Medicaid reimbursement cuts would reduce services for disabled.
The Rappahannock Area Community Services Board projects that cuts to Medicaid rates would cost the regional agency $396,000.
This could mean fewer group homes and day programs. It would also impact services in group homes.
Many parents would have to give up their jobs to stay home with their adult children. And more desperate families could choose to put their children with disabilities into institutions.
"The families are just shocked," said Marissa Sullivan, program support administrator of The Arc of the Rappahannock. "They never thought it would get this bad. They never thought it would get to this."
The cuts would also impact families seeking Medicaid services. Now, about 6,000 Virginians wait for an intellectual disabilities waiver, which would provide Medicaid services.
Annually, about 200 of those on the waiting list get a waiver. But there are no waivers in any budget proposal for next year.
"Families will be left with no option," said Linda Wilson, RACSB case management coordinator. "The family could be forced into a corner, just like back in 1950. All the progress we've made over the last 15 to 20 years is going to go backward."
The Senate and House will vote on their budgets tomorrow. Then budget conferees from each body will begin meeting to work out differences before the legislature adjourns March 13.
Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
Email: aumble@freelancestar.com
--Amy Flowers Umble
