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Support Substance Abuse Treatment
In an effort to balance the state budget, Governor Blagojevich cut nearly $1.4 billion from the budget passed by the Illinois General Assembly in May. The legislature failed to override the vetoes. Among the hardest hit programs were those that provide community-based substance abuse prevention and treatment programs. At Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, the $1.4 million being cut from substance abuse treatment programs will be painful for clients and potentially for staff. Write a letter to our lawmakers asking them to restore funding for substance abuse programs!
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Restore substance abuse funding
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I am a member of Lutheran Advocacy Illinois and I am writing to you to urge you to restore funding for substance abuse prevention and treatment. Put the money back!
As you return to Springfield this week to work on education funding reform and on the construction bill, don't forget our neighbors in Illinois who count on you to do the right thing. Put the money back where it belongs. The recent $55 million funding cut in state money for combatting drug and alcohol addiction will have huge negative impacts on the lives of many struggling with addiction as well as on their families and our communities. Illinois can not afford these cuts. A University of Chicago study found that for every dollar spent on substance abuse treatment, taxpayers save $7 down the road in costs related to prisons, health care, unemployment and homelessness. We are already seeing the negative impact of these cuts. Detox programs are limiting their intake. Others seeking services are being placed on waiting lists. Lutheran Social Services of Illinois has been notified that it will loose 1.4 million in substance abuse funding in the current year. That's a 30% cut below last year. It is no known yet which specific programs will be cut or by how much.
I know the official agenda for this week does not include restoring the recent budget cuts. My hope is that before you borrow $25 BILLION to build bridges, roads, and other physical capital, you restore the $55 MILLION in funding that invests in Illinois' human capital. People are our greatest asset, not roads. We must invest wisely now in common sense substance abuse treatment programs that help people turn their lives around and become full and productive members of society. Otherwise we will pay the price as a society in higher crime rates, traffic fatalities, unemployment, broken families, and all the other costs that come when drug and alcohol addiction is left untreated. I hope however, that you and your colleagues in the General Assembly will consider the pending crisis in addiction and treatment services and will come up with a way to restore substance abuse funding before more programs close.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
August 12, 2008
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Chicago Tribune Article: "Enormous cost of caring for Illinois babies exposed to alcohol"
Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-fetal-alcohol-27-aug27,0,5659293.story
Illinois’ Healthcare Crisis:
Budget Cuts are Decimating the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment System
Facilities have closed doors; discontinued services; and forced thousands onto waiting lists
Statewide Effects of Budget cuts
Ø $43 million cut from addiction services; more than $11 million cut from programs serving women and children, youth in treatment, youth in the community court system, and people addicted to methamphetamine
Ø Cuts have reduced the treatment system by 43 percent, a brutal and indiscriminate reduction that has devastated treatment providers across the state
Ø Many providers have closed intake programs, discharged clients, cut services, and laid off staff.
Ø Approximately 42,140 people will go without critical treatment services that are essential to making them productive taxpaying citizens.
Ø Budget reductions will result in a loss of $55 million in federal matching dollars.
Ø Loss of GRF dollars coupled with loss of matching federal dollars will result in an 85 percent reduction of the prevention service system, forcing many prevention providers to close their doors.
Ø Illinois already spends approximately $3 billion on the consequences of untreated addiction, including: crime, lost worker productivity, fatal vehicle crashes, higher insurance premiums, school dropout, teen pregnancies, child abuse and domestic violence; a 43 percent reduction will cost the state $4.3 billion to deal with untreated addiction.
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