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Budget proposal would cut addiction treatment funding


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Originally Published: 03/10/2011

Post Date: 03/11/2011

by John Richardson


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Article - Budget proposal would cut addiction treatment funding

Summary/Abstract

LePage Administration is proposing to cut state funding for residential treatment of alcohol and drug addictions, according to the Maine Office of Substance Abuse.

Content

The $4 million cut would eliminate state funding for 10 centers statewide and would force them to either find new revenue sources or stop taking in addicts and alcoholics. One of those, Serenity House in downtown Portland, would lose $376,000 - more than half its revenue, said Robert Dawber, executive director of the 44-year-old treatment center for men. "We would have to close our doors," he said. The two-year budget proposed by Gov. Paul LePage would eliminate a total of $4.4 million in state funding for substance abuse programs. The money, part of the Fund for a Healthy Maine, comes from a legal settlement with tobacco companies and would effectively be used to help pay for increasing Medicaid costs. The loss of the $4.4 million also would trigger a reduction in federal aid of about $1.3 million, according to Guy Cousins, director of the Office of Substance Abuse. The overall loss of $5.7 million represents about 20 percent of the agency's budget, he said. Members of the Legislature will take up the proposal at a public hearing Friday morning in Augusta. Serenity House, one of 13 residential substance abuse agencies in the state, relies on the funding to house and treat about 150 men a year, Dawber said. Other agencies that would lose state funding include Crossroads, a residential center for women in Windham, and Day One, a residential center for adolescents in South Portland. The state would continue to support three agencies statewide to provide emergency detox shelters to take addicts or alcoholics in for several days at a time. The cut would affect 10 centers that treat residents for as long as two or three months...... Read Entire Article Below

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