Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — According to the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, the following community mental health centers had expenses greater than income in last fiscal year:

• Area Mental Health Center, Garden City

• Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, Lawrence

• Central Kansas Mental Health Center, Salina

• Cowley County Mental Health & Guidance Center, Winfield

• Elizabeth Layton Center, Ottawa

• Pawnee Mental Health Services, Manhattan

• Prairie View, Newton

• Southwest Guidance Center, Liberal

• Sumner Mental Health Center, Wellington.

The nine centers constitute one-third of the state’s 27 community mental health centers.

The list is based on an SRS review of the centers’ annual audits for Fiscal 2009.

SRS Secretary Don Jordan conducted the review while getting ready to testify before several legislative committees about the consequences of the Medicaid cuts.

Jordan has said earlier cuts will “seriously affect the financial viability of many (centers)” and “could threaten the ability of some (centers) to remain” open.

He declined to identify which centers are most likely to close or consolidate.

Given subsequent state budget cuts, it’s unclear how many centers are currently overspending their budgets. But a recent survey by the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas found that two-thirds had less than three months of reserve funding.

“The system is at a breaking point,” said Mike Hammond, the association’s executive director.