Five local providers of behavioral health services have taken a six figure reduction in this year’s budget because of the loss of funds.

Center Point Human Services says 48 providers are affected by the funding cuts, which is retroactive to July 1. Center Point is the state-mandated Local Management Entity in charge of overseeing the delivery of publically-funded mental health, intellectual/developmental disability and substance abuse services across Forsyth, Stokes, Davie and Rockingham Counties.

Last week, the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners approved a five-year loan of more than $220,000 to Center Point.  The money would help restore cuts to mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services.

Ann Church is President and CEO of the United Methodist Agency for the Retarded at the Rockingham Opportunities Center. Her organization partners with Center Point to help serve 350 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, 70 of them in Rockingham County. 

“This was a time when the community came together at the right time to take care of people who have difficulty taking care of themselves at times and it allows us to provide services. Even with those cuts, we are looking at three years worth of significant cuts to our population and at the same time an increase in transportation costs of 70 percent just to get people to our programs,” said Church.

Church said the reductions come at a time when there is a lot of need and not a lot of behavioral health services.

“Those monies are going away at the same time the state is in this rapid transition to a managed care system. The state has expedited the timeline for that transition from 5 years to close to 18 months , and has not given any of the managed care organizations the opportunity to have the reserve on hand to fund that transition,” said Church.

In January, before the federal funding cuts, CenterPoint Human Services had planned to hire close to 90 people over the next 12 months to fill expansion needs.