Sample Letter for Opposing Legislative Cuts to Mental Health Services
Your name
Your address
Today’s Date
Dear Representative or Senator (your legislator’s name):
I oppose the Governor’s proposal for human services block grants to counties and a 20% cut to community mental health funds. I urge you to vote against this dismantling of the mental health services now available in our communities.
We have successfully developed a mental health system that has become more responsive to the needs of people with mental illness. People can and do recover from mental illness using services and supports that help them lead their daily lives with less struggle. Homelessness, joblessness, family disruption, hospitalization and even jail have been avoided when the people and the system work together to meet people’s needs.
The Governor’s proposal, if it becomes law, would devastate our local mental health system. People would be harmed if important services and supports could not be funded.
Services such as those provided by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI of Erie County and other mental health organizations that provide programs to improve the quality of life for families and individuals with mental health issues. These types of programs are a vital asset to our community, they increases empowerment, reduces burden in the home, increases the family stability, and promote the path to recovery. NAMI of Erie County specifically is focused on fostering personal growth and family stability by supporting and educating family members and individuals facing the challenges of mental illness in Erie County.
(If you are comfortable with briefly sharing some of your own experience in mental health recovery and how community mental health agencies, such as NAMI, helped you or your family, you can do so here. Please feel free to talk about how programs such as the Family-to-Family and Peer-to-Peer have impacted your life.)
Please vote against the Block Grant. It would give county governments the ability to use mental health funds to pay for other human services. There would be no requirements to spend the 73% of the block grant that is mental health money on mental health services. Counties could choose how to spend that money. We could lose many more services than what we would lose right away with the 20% cut.
Please vote against the 20% cut. It is important to keep full funding for mental health services. People who are the working poor without medical insurance often can use services funded through community mental health funds. People with good health care benefits who develop a serious mental illness quickly exhaust their benefits and have to rely on community mental health services. Vote against the cut and help these resources to continue for our citizens.
I also ask you to vote against cuts to General Assistance (GA). The people who need this are having a rough time in their lives. People in recovery often have used GA to temporarily help them with basic needs. This resource must continue.
Thank you for considering my urgent concerns about the impact of budget cuts and a block grant on people in mental health recovery. I would be happy to talk with you about this and can be reached at (your phone number if you want to give it.)
Sincerely,
Your Name