PLEASE HELP!

Recently Oklahoma’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS)has had some pretty severe budget cuts due to the lower than expected state revenue short falls. These shortages are resulting in the ODMHSAS having less money to disperse to all phases of Oklahoma’s mental health care programs and services.

Statewide, ODMHSAS funded mental health care providers and organizations are being forced to look elsewhere for funding in order to continue to provide much needed clinical services and care. In several situations, patient care may put our family members in jeopardy due to waiting lists for both inpatient and outpatient services. Currently, state sponsered providers are in the process of reducing or eliminating key clinical programs.

Advocacy organizations such as the state offices of NAMI Oklahoma as well as local affiliates are being forced to endure draconian cuts in program funding. Recently, the Dept of Mental Health notified NAMI Tulsa of funding cuts. These cuts are only the beginning. This means signature programs offered by NAMI such as Family to Family, Peer to Peer and NAMI Basics now need to be funded by other sources or be discontinued. NAMI’s signature programs have always been free of charge to consumers and family members/caregivers through funding from the state NAMI office and grants from ODMHSAS. Estimated cost per participant currently exceeds $50 each which includes participant materials, books, handouts, operation cost and office staff time. Now, it is time for us to determine the importance of these programs and which ones our members find crucial. Hopefully, with your help, we will be able to offer these programs and continue to be offered at no cost.

In January 2010, as part of its cost cutting effort, NAMI Tulsa will eliminate its regular monthly newsletter mail out and begin offering a quarterly newsletter mail out. The monthly newsletter will continue to be published on a limited basis and offered online on the NAMI Tulsa website.

Things you can do to help:

Contact your state legislator at (405) 521-2711 or state senator at (405) 524-0126 and ask them to stop cutting funds for our ill family members.  Let them know that these cuts literally mean life or death for our loved ones.

Please feel free to call Rose at (918) 587-6264 to offer your help by volunteering at the NAMI Tulsa office, at NAMI events, or assisting with the NAMI monthly meeting. And we are always looking for new faces to be trained as teacher/facilitator in one of our signature programs and we always need resource people to support these programs.

Also, please take a moment to support NAMI Tulsa by clicking the PayPal donation button or show your support by participating as a sponsor for the upcoming NAMI walks. And don’t forget to renew your membership when the time comes, as every little bit helps.