Counseling Center Using Reserves Amid State Budget Impasse
Grant money held up so far
•August 5, 2015•
by Mike Brothers
The real life of recovery is something clients at Moultrie Counseling Center deal with every day, but the state’s budget stalemate is forcing the center to face its own real life dilemma.
How to continue providing needed mental treatment when funding sources are threatened is the problem.
Running without a state budget means the Sullivan based community mental health provider has not received $37,076 of its total state grant of $49,075 for contract services.
David Cole, center executive director, explained that is the money needed for psychiatric services. Funding from state Division of Mental Health is essential for paying doctors, who are required to evaluate clients.
“The psychiatrist is the centerpiece to successful mental health intervention,” Cole explained, noting that a third of Moultrie Counseling Center clients are required to have a doctor review medications periodically before prescriptions may be renewed.