Urgent Action re San Fran Drug Treatment Funding!

[EFerrari]

(cross posted from CA forum)

911: The Mayor has convened a special Task Force on Methamphetamine, but his budget calls for cutting outpatient substance treatmentalmost in half. My kid can’t get treatment from a task force. Can yours?

The Mayor has proposed making these cuts by making all outpatients substance abuse treatment programs bid competitively for funding. The Dept of Public Health will reduce outpatient substance abuse treatment funding to about half of what it is currently.

By doing it this way, they avoid naming any specific programs. We need to lobby for continued funding of the whole system of outpatient substance abuse treatment since no individual programs have been named. We need to give the Mayor and the Board these four facts:

FOUR FACTS MAYOR NEWSOM AND THE BOARD OF SUPES NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FUNDING OUTPATIENT SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT IN SAN FRANCISCO.


1. TREATMENT ON DEMAND IS THE OFFICIAL POLICY OF THE CITY AND COUNTY.

Although the City never achieved the goal of Treatment on Demand, funding for substance abuse treatment was increased significantly in the late 90s which meant many more people were able to get help in a timely manner.

Cutting funding for outpatient substance abuse treatment almost in half means negating Treatment on Demand. Many more people will be told that they have to wait to get help. And, as we all know, that will mean many will not get any help at all since they will give up before a treatment slot is available.

2. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE OUTPATIENT SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT TO THE SAME NUMBER OF PEOPLE AT HALF THE COST.

The Mayor and Mitch Katz, MD, the Director of Public Health, are saying that this is a "restructuring" to reduce per unit costs. This is not “restructuring”, this is gutting our outpatient substance abuse treatment system.

3. OUTPATIENT SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT WORKS AND IS NEEDED.

Some of the justification for these cuts is either that treatment has not been proven to work and/or that people can just go to Twelve Step meetings. There is ample evidence in the research literature that treatment does work. In fact, there was a study done by the state of California seven or eight years ago that showed that the state saved $7 in hospital costs, jail costs, etc., for every dollar spent on substance abuse treatment.

4. WE WILL LOSE FEDERAL FUNDS

Two of our programs, Stonewall and STOP, are the recipients of federal Targeted Capacity Expansion funding for methamphetamine treatment which the County was awarded and is intended to do just that - expand capacity. It is not meant to replace local funds and, in fact, the Feds are likely to rescind this grant if the local funds are cut.

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED BEFORE MID JUNE HEARINGS:

PLEASE CONTACT the Supervisors on the Budget and Finance Committee which hears the budget first: Tom Ammiano who is the Chair, Chris Daly, Sean Elsbernd, Fiona Ma, and Jake McGoldrick. (Contact info follows)

PLEASE ALSO CONTACT any and all of the Supervisors because the full Board votes on the City budget.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR RESULTS IF POSSIBLE: Elizabeth Ferrari [e-mail]

Thank you for supporting a sane drug treatment policy in San Francisco.


Michela Alioto-Pier
District 2
[phone]
[e-mail]

Tom Ammiano
District 9
[phone]
[e-mail]

Chris Daly
District 6
[phone]
[e-mail]

Bevan Dufty
District 8
[phone]
[e-mail]

Sean Elsbernd
District 7
[phone]
[e-mail]

Fiona Ma
District 4
[phone]
[e-mail]

Sophie Maxwell
District 10
[phone]
[e-mail]

Jake McGoldrick
District 1
[phone]
[e-mail]

Ross Mirkarimi
District 5
[phone]
[e-mail]

Aaron Peskin - Board President
District 3
[phone]
[e-mail]

Gerardo Sandoval
District 11
[phone]
[e-mail]


The USPS address for all the Supes is:

City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689

[EFerrari]

1. RALLY TODAY CITY HALL STEPS 11.AM.

PLEASE JOIN US AND HELP US SAVE A SANE DRUG TREATMENT POLICY IN SAN FRANCISCO!