State budget cuts beginning July 1 will take a chunk out of services provided by Mississippi’s Department of Rehabilitation Services.
How those cuts will specifically affect services provided in the greater Greenwood area, though, is uncertain.
State Director Chris Howard announced last week that his agency will lose during the next fiscal year more than $3.4 million in state funding and, as a consequence, between $10 and $11 million in federal money.
That amounts to around 12 percent of the department’s annual budget. Statewide, the agency serves about 10,000 Mississippians a year. It offers job training, technology assistance and independent-living tools for the blind and disabled.
Locally, the Department of Rehabilitation Services helps fund some programs at Life Help mental health center. Phaedre Cole, director of Life Help, said, however, that she had not been informed yet of any cuts that would affect her programs.
The Greenwood rehabilitation office couldn’t answer questions about possible cuts in services, saying state officials would have to give out that information.
State spokespersons have not returned calls to the Commonwealth.
Officials, though, have indicated on the agency’s website and in interviews with other media that the Office of Special Disability Programs could be the most affected. That division serves people with severe orthopedic or neurological impairments that make them dependent upon others for daily living, or those with traumatic brain or spinal cord injury who require a level of care provided in a nursing facility.
In recent interviews, Howard has pointed to the Home and Community-Based Services Waiver programs, which fall under the special disability division, as those that will lose the most significant funding as the agency adjusts its budget.
In a recent interview on Super Talk Mississippi radio, Howard said he’d worked hard since becoming executive director of the Department of Rehabilitation Services to get as many referrals to the waiver programs as possible.
“It allows people (with severe disabilities) to live at home instead of a nursing home,” he said, estimating that it’s about $58,000 less expensive per year than a long-term-care facility.
“We’re not going to knock anybody out who is currently being served, but we’re slowing down that referral process,” Howard said.
In an earlier interview with The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Howard indicated the waiver programs would accept no new clients for four to five months to save money.
Additionally, he has announced that the agency won’t replace employees who leave or retire.
In the 2016 legislative session, a bill was introduced to merge Rehabilitation Services into a proposed new Department of Medicaid and Human Services since, according to proponents of the merger, many of their programs overlap. The Home and Community-Based Waiver programs, for example, are administered jointly by the departments of Rehabilitation Services and Medicaid.
Howard’s agency lobbied against the proposed merger, arguing that its unique focus on those with disabilities would be diluted and that the merger could endanger federal funds. The agency said that it saves the state money through its services.
The bill died in conference.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
