Low funding hampers mental health services

We couldn't agree more with your lead editorial of July 14 about placing a priority on mental health treatment for young people. Unfortunately, as Shannon Harnett, coordinator of DuPage County's juvenile justice council stated, we "just don't have the resources to address the problem from within the system." This is especially true for child psychiatry.

As we learned from taking over the child and adolescent mental health program from Larkin Center when it closed, child psychiatrists are rare, very much in demand, and therefore very expensive. To fulfill our mission of providing affordable mental health services to low-income people, we rely on Medicaid and state grants to pay our child psychiatrist. Currently, Medicaid pays us $98 per hour for child psychiatry; the actual hourly cost for a well-qualified professional is over twice that amount.

Unfortunately, salary alone doesn't capture the full costs of providing psychiatry services. We must also assume the costs associated with accreditation, billing and medical records staff, nursing support, electronic medical records and so on. In prior years, we received a state grant which enabled us to cover these costs. That grant has not been renewed for 2016. Neither has another grant which enabled us to pay for services for poor individuals who do not qualify for Medicaid.

As always, we will try to provide these services without state grant money, but without a funding miracle, we will fail. Sadly, the costs of not being able to provide these psychiatric services could be catastrophic for the child who, instead, turns to drugs, violence or inappropriate behaviors. These kinds of outcomes will end up causing untold human suffering and create unnecessary risks and expenditures for the communities in which the untreated individuals live.

Karen Beyer, Executive Director

Ecker Center for Mental Health

Elgin