Letters to the Editor 7-24-14

The Jewish Voice for Peace

A good way to help our Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters in Gaza deal with their decades-long repression by the Israeli Jewish Defense Forces is to contact the San Francisco-based organization Jewish Voice for Peace.

The JVP offers common-sense 21st-century solutions to a needless conflict. One example is a one-state solution where all parties live together, since Israeli Jewish colonization of the West Bank, E. Jerusalem and Gaza, now prevents a viable two-state solution, as discussed by Mid East expert Rita Hauser recently at the Kent Memorial Library, and by Mazin Qumsiyeh at the Gunn Memorial Library in Washington, Conn., a number of years ago.

In his book “Sharing the Land of Canaan,” Dr. Qumsiyeh leads us through the the realities of a one-state solution modeled after America or Switzerland, or more recently South Africa. Dr. Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian Christian American, who taught at Yale and now lives in the occupied West Bank.

For more information about Jewish Voice for Peace, please go to www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org. Shalom.

Joseph A. Mustich

Washington, Conn.

CMHA clinic will close

It is with deepest regret that I must inform residents of the Lakeville area that Community Mental Health Affiliates (CMHA) will be closing our Northwest Center Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic on Oct. 31, 2014.

In 2007, when the Northwest Center was in danger of going out of business, CMHA acquired and merged with the Northwest Center. The CMHA Board of Directors and management committed to this merger because we felt very strongly then, as we do now, that northwest Connecticut needs and deserves high-quality, readily accessible services. The community obviously agreed. The generous philanthropic support from the area over these years was essential to maintaining services in an era of increased demand and flat revenue.

However, after seven years of stagnant grant support from the state and Medicaid rates that pay less than 65 percent of the cost of care, state officials have decided to reduce grants for outpatient services made by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. These cuts in grant support were made law when the General Assembly passed the state budget for this fiscal year. 

As a result of this poorly thought-out decision, we have no recourse but to end operations in Lakeville. 

What is the basis for the decision to cut funding for these services? State policymakers have determined that, due to the impact of the Affordable Care Act, state grants supporting outpatient services are no longer needed. Their determination is incorrect, and shows a stunning lack of awareness on how people access behavioral healthcare and even how insurance coverage operates.

We do not support the state budget decisions that have been made in Hartford regarding mental healthcare funding. An already underfunded system has now hit the breaking point. Providers can no longer offer the services to individuals or communities without regard to covering their costs of care.

CMHA and other providers have warned elected officials, legislators and policy makers for years of the damage that these funding decisions would cause. Reduced funding from the Department of Children and Families will also force CMHA to close our Pando residential home for boys in Torrington at the end of August 2014. Service reductions such as these are happening throughout Connecticut.

We are no longer able to operate in Lakeville under these financial constraints. CMHA’s leadership team and board of directors have exhausted all avenues and explored all of our options, and these decisions have not been made lightly. 

I can promise you that we are working to provide a smooth transition for our Lakeville clients, whether it’s transferring them to our office in Torrington or assisting clients to make arrangements with other area providers. Our first priority is caring for those who need our help to recover from mental illness and addiction. That has not changed and it will not change. 

I’m grateful for all the support from the Lakeville community over the years, and on behalf of the families, children and adults that we have served, I thank you. 

Raymond J. Gorman

President & CEO 

Community Mental Health Affiliates (CMHA) 

New Britain