Another Hit to Kent County MD – State Budget Cuts
One of the decisions that was made at this week’s Public Works Board was to close the Upper Shore Community Mental Health Center in Chestertown Maryland.
This 40 bed facility is constantly full and will have around 200 patients filtering through it each year. All of these patients are uninjured, but are in need for services near their homes.
The nearest public facility is on the Eastern Shore is 50 miles away in Cambridge or on the Western Shore.
With the closure of this facility Kent County will take a big hit in lost jobs. Of the 205 state jobs to be terminated 92 of these come as a result of the closure of this facility. An additional 26 contract jobs will also cease to exist.
The employees of the center, the community and the elected officials never had a chance to make their feelings known.
While there were rumors that something may be coming, no one knew that it was part of the plan until the afternoon before the Public Works meeting. Less than 24 hours. Even in this age of instant communications a time period that is considered short.
Employees have been told that their jobs are gone with no severance package, no early retirement, no extended health insurance they not be able to bump other state employees out of jobs.
August 29, 2009 at 12:02 pm
THE FACES OF UPPER SHORE – THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN CARING FOR THE MENTALLY ILL SINCE 1982- 96% of us live on the Shore. 48% of those live in KENT COUNTY. We are the 10th largest employer in Kent County. 48% of us have more than 10 years State Employment. 20 % of us have 20-29 years of state employment. 100% of us have been told we will lose our jobs and get no severance pay, no insurance benefits (unless we go through COBRA) none of our retirement pay(unless we are AGE 55 then we are eligible at a 42% reduction) We have been told state personnel sessions won’t be held for at least 2 weeks, at Upper Shore, to assist us with placement in other state positions and explore all of our options.
Is this anyway to treat a dedicated long term work force? Even Pier 1 imports offered someone I know who was terminated a weeks’ pay for each year of service, at the time I thought that really sucked….little did I know.
I have literally held crying work peers in my arms this week. I had an employee tell me they have nothing to live for.. they will lose everything they have worked for all these years and they are sure that the no one involved in the decision to close us will lose 1 nights sleep if they kill themselves.
We are being our own emotional support and still caring for patients. Every day I have seen shell shocked and crying employees still deliver the services our patients need. I have heard personal stories that nobody would share during normal times. Many employees already work 2 jobs to make ends meet. Several have a spouse who is working reduced hours or have lost their jobs. Some have already lost, or on the verge of losing, their homes. Many of them, or their family members, have chronic medical conditions that will suffer dramatically from the lose of insurance benefits. Several of us will be in need of the services we now provide, but won’t be able to find them.
We are fighting furiously to reverse the closure of UPPER SHORE for our patients and ourselves.
THE GOVEROR & PUBLIC WORKS BOARD members ( http://www.bpw.state.md.us/) need to be flooded with emails & phone calls from the community we serve telling them to stop the closure of UPPER SHORE.
Over the past 27 years, Upper Shore Mental Health has helped many hundreds of men and women – and their families – attain a new lease on life. Its small staff has long been known for its compassion, innovation and excellence. They created the only specialty unit in the state hospital system for co-occurring mental illness and addiction. This unit has helped people from all over Maryland learn to deal with this difficult problem. Other pioneering examples include mental illness management education for patients and the early use of Clozapine, a medication which helped some people who had been in the hospital for years regain their lives in the community.
As the mother of a young patient once put it, Upper Shore is “the best-kept secret in the state.” In Maryland, it has been state hospitals – not private units – which have helped sufferers of severe and persistent mental illness. This is because the doctors, nurses and therapists come to know the patients, and the patients can stay until they are ready for discharge and have arrangements for decent housing and aftercare. Can Marylanders really afford to lose such a reservoir of knowledge and experience? What is going to happen to the patients who need extended hospital care? Shouldn’t a way be found to keep Upper Shore alive through the tough times?
As a 30-something Washington College psychology graduate student in the 1990’s I was required to spend some time @ Upper Shore to get acquainted with the mental health inpatient situation. It was an eye opening experience. Those of us who are fortunate enough not to be touched directly by severe mental illness have no clue what is involved unless you have such an experience. I could go on and on, but to make a long story short, this facility (and community) have provided a crucial service to many patients & their families. My fear is that this will ultimately increase the number of mentally ill homeless people needing assistance who are not getting it. Did the board consider this expense when they made their decision? I’m sure they’ll say they did.
That’s not to mention the loss of jobs for dedicated employees who now face a destabilizing economic situation when many of us hoped that our country was heading towards economic stability.
In closing, I’d like to say that I hope the decision makers are ready to accept the social, not just economical, consequences of their decision. God bless us all…