Testimony for the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee

June 19, 2020

Testimony regarding the Supplemental Budget

Senator Breen, Representative Gattine and Members of the Committee,

Thank you for the invitation to speak with you about the impact of the coronavirus
epidemic on community behavioral health organizations and, more importantly, the
people we serve.

I am Eric Meyer, President and CEO of Spurwink Services. Spurwink serves over 8,500
Maine people each year, with 1,100 employees statewide. I am speaking on behalf of
Spurwink, for my colleagues in the Behavioral Health Community Collaborative and as the Board President
of the Alliance of Addiction and Mental Health Services.

We are asking for State Government to establish two COVID Relief Funds for Community Behavioral Health;
one fund to address the existing funding crisis for these critical services and another to fund expected needs
in the coming year.

As you are aware, we are in the midst of a trifecta – the COVID epidemic, a rapid economic collapse based
on this epidemic, and the public outcry that we shift our policing away from practices that reflect systemic
racism. All of this in addition to a raging opioid epidemic that only seems to be growing in response to these
crises.

Behavioral health systems and services are at the center of each of these crises. The services we provide as
community mental health providers were severely impacted by COVID – both in our ability to deliver
outpatient and residential services and by the dramatically increasing needs of Maine citizens as they
endure this pandemic. The economic collapse has had a severely negative impact on our workforce – one
that has been stretched to the limit before any of these crises hit.

I know don’t need to remind this committee how fragile and underfunded the community based mental
health system was before these crises. Many agencies and programs are barely holding on. We were facing
work force shortages and our inability to compete for workers due to inadequate reimbursement, trying to
bring people home from out of state placements, shifting department priorities, AND an ever-increasing
need for both child and adult services. We have experienced program closures, agency closings, and
reduction of access to services at a time when the public need for our services is increasing.

And then COVID hit. This is a partial list of the ways in which we were affected in our ability to serve our
clients, all of which required us to find additional funding:

• Purchasing huge quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). At Spurwink alone we have spent
over $200,000 and climbing.
• Near universal adoption of telehealth and online work capabilities. That meant the purchase of
expanded IT networks, equipment, internet, phones, phone minutes for our staff and our clients. At
Spurwink our IT-related costs due to COVID so far are over $200,000.
• Incentive pay for many of our employees to ensure that they continued to come to work to serve
clients- particularly extra pay for the “hazardous duty” of serving clients who are COVID-positive.
• Our special purpose schools, therapeutic preschools and adult community support programs either
closed or served far fewer clients with a distance learning model.
• We lost staff due to their inability to find child care for their own children or due to illness. At Spurwink
over 45 staff are currently out of work for these reasons.
• The calls to the crisis system and warm lines are increasing
• The need for mobile crisis services is increasing
• Some adult residential programs are scaling back, and serving fewer people in order to ensure social
distancing and safety.
• Several agencies had and continue to have outbreaks in their facilities and must do major building, air
system and physical plant changes to accommodate social distancing, disinfecting, etc.
• Staff has had to be tested frequently, which is a large and growing expense for organizations. At
Spurwink we’ve spent over $40,000 on testing, with much more to come

As you can see, the fiscal impact on community behavioral health organizations has been huge. There has
been some help from DHHS, and we appreciate what they have done, but that assistance has been relatively
small and time limited. Many agencies have lost millions of dollars – and their year-end losses are
predicted to be between 10 and 15 %. Some are predicting revenue loss of up to 40%.

This pandemic is clearly not over. As Dr Fauci said this week, its too soon to talk about a second wave, as we
are not out of the first wave yet. At the same time, we are very concerned about predictions of a fall
increase in cases. It is also important to note that the need for mental health services has not peaked. Any
time we go through a national crisis that effects people’s lives so dramatically, it often takes time (3 -12
months) for the mental health impacts to manifest and for people to seek treatment. Also, the needs of
people with chronic and persistent mental illness tend to increase in severity over time following a crisis.

The community mental health system is in a crisis of its own. We face the very real possibility of doors
closing on services and agencies that are desperately needed.

When we look at what can be done, it is difficult to give you an exact number of the money lost and what
we need in the next 6-12 months. Each agency has had specific needs, some have been able to access
Federal assistance while some, like Spurwink, have not. Some have seen a reduction in services and some
have not. So there is not an across the board solution here.

What we ask of you today is to create a streamlined, rapid-response behavioral health COVID relief fund for
community behavioral health. At the end of this month, providers will know what they have lost and spent
due to the virus. They would then be eligible to apply to the fund to keep them whole. We estimate the
need here to be approximately $15 million.

And, going forward in the coming year, we recommend another COVID Relief Fund, that is available on an
“as needed” basis. Again, we don’t know what is in store, but we would recommend $20 million be set
aside for the ongoing COVID Relief Fund for Community Behavioral Health.

Again, adequate community mental health services are a central piece of everything that is going on. And
the system is in trouble. Please direct a portion of the CARES Act money to address these needs.

Thank you,

Eric Meyer