Missouri Mental Health Service Supporters

To: Governor Matt Blunt

The care of human life and happiness is the first and only legitimate object of good government. Thomas Jefferson

This petition urges you to abandon your plan to cut funding to people who receive community-based services through the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Many thousands of Missouri citizens are affected by devastating and often lifelong disabilities. These are individuals that you, as Governor, have sworn to protect. The cuts you have proposed in your budget will have profound effects on Missourians who suffer from serious and persistent mental illness, individuals who receive alcohol and drug treatment, and persons who are affected by mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

Please reconsider the terrible consequences that your proposed plan will inflict upon this states most vulnerable individuals.

Who will help over 15,000 severally mentally ill Missourians when they can no longer receive medication and other critical services? Who will be responsible when the rates of homelessness and suicide begin to climb because individuals who need help will have nowhere to go?
How can the State of Missouri save money when current cuts will result in larger expenditures for hospitalizations and incarcerations?
What excuses can be made for cutting access to critical services by persons with disabilities and proposing that the disabled pay disproportionately large co-payments for the services that they do receive?
How is it justifiable to increase funding in some areas of state government while cutting services essential to the survival of Missouris most vulnerable citizens?

In addition, changes in Medicaid eligibility will mean that thousands of Missourians who are already struggling with illness and long-term disabilities will have to choose between paying their rent and living expenses, and receiving medications. How does this benefit the State of Missouri?

Short-term answers frequently lay the seeds for long-term crises. Solving the issues related to Missouri public elementary and secondary education does not mean the State needs to turn its back on persons with disabilities.

It is critical to restore general revenue funds to community services through the Department of Mental Health and to exclude the disabled from the proposed Medicaid cuts.