Edwin Fair Community Mental Health Center is an agency that will lose a majority of their funding affecting almost all their services and thousands of clients. According to Jodi Burch, Executive Director of the Center. “The proposed cuts, should they take effect, would force us to shut our doors,” Burch made the statement after the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced plans eliminating all state-funded outpatient services statewide after $75 million was taken from its budget due to the overturning of a cigarette tax.
The services lost will include all state-funded outpatient services statewide for indigent and behavioral health Medicaid eligible clients, as well as the elimination of residential treatment services for children. Drug courts, mental health courts and other court related programs will no longer be funded. The state’s Systems of Care program that serves vulnerable youth and their families, in addition to other state agencies and local schools, will be discontinued.
Edwin Fair has served the community for almost 60 years and currently has close to 100 employees.
