Cuts in mental health services are costing the state billions of dollars in long-term expenses.
That's according to a study released Tuesday by the Mental Health Association in Texas.
Austin-Travis County's Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) has an open door policy for anyone in a crisis. But psychiatrists say they're bracing for another tight budget year. Two years ago, state funding for county mental health services was cut by three percent, or about $5 million.
"The ways that we've compensated is that we've had to spend our cash reserves. We've had to ask people to take on two or three jobs," Dr. Jim Van Norman, medical director of Austin-Travis County MHMR, said.
Mental health workers say emergency beds at PES and at Austin State Hospital are nearly always at capacity. Advocates say when there aren't enough beds available, patients run the risk of ending up in the county's justice system.
"Maybe they were sleeping in an abandoned building and were charged with tresspassing, or maybe they had to go to the bathroom and end up with some sort of indecency charge. Because of a lack of treatments they may wind up in the jails," Van Norman said.
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Mental health study
Mental health advocates want budget cuts restored. They say it will cost the state billions in the long run.
 
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Travis County Sherriff's Officers in the Crisis Management Center make two to three trips a day to PES. They bring people to the center who show visible signs of becoming a danger to themselves or the community because of their mental illness.
The Mental Health Assocation in Texas study said the indirect cost of budget cuts add up to more than $16 billion a year.
"We're paying the cost of mental illness in a number of different ways, in our jails, in our emergency rooms. And it's much more effective to treat those people in the communities before they get sick," executive director Lynn Laskey Clark said.
The advocacy group took its case to lawmakers. They want funding for services restored to where they were before the cuts two years ago.
"We know there are a lot of pressures on the Legislature, a lot of issues that need to be funded, but this is a serious issue for the state of Texas," Clark said.
The Mental Health Association study was released one week before the state releases its own findings.
Two years ago, lawmakers asked the state's Health Services Commission to find out which state hospitals and schools would be easiest to privatize or consolidate in the event of a budget crunch.
A preliminary draft of the report showed that Kerrville State Hospital and Austin State School were the easiest. The Commission is expected to present their final recommendations to lawmakers next week.
