GOVERNOR REVERSES CUTS
TO PSYCHIATRIC DAY TREATMENT

After announcing that funding for psychiatric day treatment would be cut as part of budget reduction measures Governor Romney announced this month that these programs were granted a reprieve. Mentally ill people and their care givers deluged the Governor's office and state lawmakers with phone calls and letters to persuade the governor to reconsider eliminating the 33 psychiatric day programs in Massachusetts.

Romney restored $1.1 million to fund the programs through the fiscal year that ends June 30 - the first such reversal since the new governor announced sweeping emergency budget cuts last month. Health and Human Services Secretary Ron Preston warned that the reprieve might only be temporary.

When the new fiscal year begins July 1, he explained, Romney might scale back psychiatric day treatment programs to serve only "a few hundred" clients in most severe need.

- Adapted from: "Psychiatric Caregivers, Clients Celebrate Restoration Of Funds" By Jonathan Saltzman, The Boston Globe, 02/13/2003 02/03