Workers Call For Increase In Mental Health Funding

HARTFORD, CT — Accidental drug overdoses were up at least by 13% in 2020, but according to members of the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199 SEIU, the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services remains underfunded in Gov. Ned Lamont’s two-year budget.

“We absolutely need to restore our bed capacity, but we need to go beyond that,” Monique Anderson, a mental health assistant with DMHAS’ Addiction Services Division at Connecticut Valley Hospital, said in her testimony to the Appropriations Committee this week. “Addiction Services needs $6.3 million to fully staff the division, and to add an additional unit, or 30 more beds, so we can provide proper care to the residents of Connecticut who are struggling with increased addiction levels.”

The union rallied outside Blue Hills campus of Connecticut Valley Hospital’s Addiction Services Division Wednesday morning to draw attention to the need for increased mental health services during the pandemic.

Lamont gave DMHAS an extra $6 million in funding for fiscal year 2022. DMHAS Commissioner Miriam Delphin-Rittman had asked for an additional $27 million above the agency’s $652 million budget. DHMAS was one of several state agencies that had workers’ compensation claims and human resources and labor relations funding shifted to the state Department of Administrative Services.

Read more: https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2021/03/04/workers-call-for-increase-in-mental-health-funding/