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Providers and residents tell Eaton County commissioners cuts would cripple mental-health safety net
Summary
Clinicians, clients and local advocates told the board that proposed cuts to Community Mental Health would eliminate services across schools, jails and crisis systems and would magnify county reductions because of lost state matching funds.
Multiple CMH staff, clinicians and residents described to the Eaton County Board of Commissioners how local services would be curtailed if funding is reduced. Dr. Scott Struck, supervisor of the Eaton County Counseling Center, said the county's clinics provide crisis response, inpatient authorizations and outreach and warned that, "Without CMH, there is no mental health safety net." He urged restoration of funding to preserve care for children, adults and the most vulnerable.
Guanda Summers, standing in for the CMH CEO, outlined three scenarios—full funding, zero county funding and partial funding—and emphasized that any reduction beyond the legal minimum would sharply decrease the state drawdown and the county's ability to provide services. Clinicians and client advocates provided specifics: CMH serves school-based programs, jail diversion, crisis services and developmental-disability supports. "If we go down to that minimum allocation, we will have to take the percentage that it's reduced," Summers said, describing a multi-million-dollar loss in state matching funds the agency is still analyzing.
Speakers also included Dr. Evan Goodman and local clients who described decades of reliance on CMH for crisis stabilization, outpatient therapy and supports that keep people out of hospitals and jails. The public testimony was a central factor cited by commissioners who favored reinstating the mandated minimum to preserve state-matched services.
