As one of the largest providers of community-based residential treatment and community mental-health case management services in Maine, we were thrilled to hear that Daniel Wathen, court master of the Augusta Mental Health Institute consent decree, has identified $5.4 million to support mental health clients who are not eligible for MaineCare.

These funds will go a long way in addressing the unmet needs of clients in their home communities by providing essential residential treatment and community case-management services. The additional funding will also help clients who cannot afford mental health services, before they fall into distress and potentially into crisis and are forced to utilize emergency response services, which have become overburdened by the lack of preventative mental health care.

Providers of these services and treatment have been doing their best to meet client needs at reimbursement rates that have not kept up with the cost of living. These funds will allow direct care staff to be paid a more livable wage and do the great work that they do every day to serve even more clients who have had to do without essential mental health services.

We look forward to working with the state to make these funds available to all mental health providers throughout the state of Maine so that those who want these services do not continue to go without.

Mary Haynes-Rodgers, LCSW

executive director

Norman Maze

deputy director

Shalom House, Inc.

Portland