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Proposed federal budget cuts threaten much-needed, cost-effective programs
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| The author Tim Evinger is the Sheriff of Klamath County and a member of the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids (www.fightcrime.org.) |
Published Tuesday April 12, 2005
By TIM EVINGER
Guest columnist
On March 17, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed budget resolutions that set the wrong priorities for America's law enforcement and children.
Both budgets would cut funding for cops on the street and the House budget would cut Medicaid and its mental health services, which are proven to help kids get the right start in life so they become responsible adults instead of criminals.
Medicaid helps cover intensive family therapy programs, including a program developed in Eugene called Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care. These programs help troubled young people steer away from crime and get their lives back on track. The interventions work individually with kids to change their behavior, with parents to equip them to better manage their children's behavior and with communities to move kids back into classrooms. Research shows that the Oregon program reduced the number of youths who had additional arrests by more than 80 percent. The program also saved $11 for every $1 spent.
Nurse Family Partnership is another Medicaid-supported program through which nurses or trained professionals provide parenting coaching and other skills to at-risk new parents. Children of mothers left out of the program had five times as many reports of abuse and neglect as children in the program. Also, children of mothers left out of the program had twice as many arrests as the children of mothers who received home coaching. Medicaid also supports Healthy Start, another Oregon in-home parent coaching program.
No wonder the more than 100 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and crime victims who make up the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Oregon have called for making sure all eligible families have access to these critical mental health programs.
When the budget came to the Senate floor last month, Oregon's Sen. Gordon Smith worked hard to improve it, introducing and winning a crucial amendment to preserve Medicaid and its mental health care for low-income children and families. Now leaders in Congress are negotiating a "compromise" between the Senate budget that preserved Medicaid and the House budget that includes deep cuts in Medicaid. Smith is under intense pressure to accept these cuts.
Oregon police officers and sheriffs' deputies arrest more than 30,000 young people a year for juvenile crimes. How many more crimes will be committed if Congress cuts Medicaid and children in Oregon and denies mental health services?
We believe in balancing budgets, but we don't believe in false economies like these. Reducing investments that help kids get the right start actually squanders billions in tax dollars. If America doesn't pay now for both law enforcement and smart investments in mental health that steer children away from a life of crime, we will all pay far more later in tax dollars, crime costs and victims' lives.
When we know proven treatment can help troubled youth stay in school, at home and out of jail, to make these reductions in mental health programs would be a declaration of surrender, moving us backward toward more crime and a less productive nation.
That's why we're grateful for the courage Smith showed in supporting these investments. If he stands his ground to oppose any final budget that includes cuts to Medicaid and its mental health services, Oregon law enforcement leaders and crime victims will stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
Join me in calling Smith, today, to tell him we support him here in Oregon for his courageous budget stand and encourage him to fight the cuts to Medicaid and its mental health services.
By TIM EVINGER
Guest columnist
On March 17, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed budget resolutions that set the wrong priorities for America's law enforcement and children.
Both budgets would cut funding for cops on the street and the House budget would cut Medicaid and its mental health services, which are proven to help kids get the right start in life so they become responsible adults instead of criminals.
Medicaid helps cover intensive family therapy programs, including a program developed in Eugene called Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care. These programs help troubled young people steer away from crime and get their lives back on track. The interventions work individually with kids to change their behavior, with parents to equip them to better manage their children's behavior and with communities to move kids back into classrooms. Research shows that the Oregon program reduced the number of youths who had additional arrests by more than 80 percent. The program also saved $11 for every $1 spent.
Nurse Family Partnership is another Medicaid-supported program through which nurses or trained professionals provide parenting coaching and other skills to at-risk new parents. Children of mothers left out of the program had five times as many reports of abuse and neglect as children in the program. Also, children of mothers left out of the program had twice as many arrests as the children of mothers who received home coaching. Medicaid also supports Healthy Start, another Oregon in-home parent coaching program.
No wonder the more than 100 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and crime victims who make up the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Oregon have called for making sure all eligible families have access to these critical mental health programs.
When the budget came to the Senate floor last month, Oregon's Sen. Gordon Smith worked hard to improve it, introducing and winning a crucial amendment to preserve Medicaid and its mental health care for low-income children and families. Now leaders in Congress are negotiating a "compromise" between the Senate budget that preserved Medicaid and the House budget that includes deep cuts in Medicaid. Smith is under intense pressure to accept these cuts.
Oregon police officers and sheriffs' deputies arrest more than 30,000 young people a year for juvenile crimes. How many more crimes will be committed if Congress cuts Medicaid and children in Oregon and denies mental health services?
We believe in balancing budgets, but we don't believe in false economies like these. Reducing investments that help kids get the right start actually squanders billions in tax dollars. If America doesn't pay now for both law enforcement and smart investments in mental health that steer children away from a life of crime, we will all pay far more later in tax dollars, crime costs and victims' lives.
When we know proven treatment can help troubled youth stay in school, at home and out of jail, to make these reductions in mental health programs would be a declaration of surrender, moving us backward toward more crime and a less productive nation.
That's why we're grateful for the courage Smith showed in supporting these investments. If he stands his ground to oppose any final budget that includes cuts to Medicaid and its mental health services, Oregon law enforcement leaders and crime victims will stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
Join me in calling Smith, today, to tell him we support him here in Oregon for his courageous budget stand and encourage him to fight the cuts to Medicaid and its mental health services.
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