2025 advocacy piece

Recommendations: 4 Untold Stories S ince he was in middle school, Michael had seen several friends struggle with mental health difficulties and as a result, he developed a passion for helping others with similar challenges. He became a licensed clinical social worker and for his first 20 years in the field, his career met his expectations of being immensely rewarding, and his dedication and determination to help individuals thrive became stronger throughout that time. His commitment is further demonstrated by his securing a second full- time job to supplement his finances, as the salary from the behavioral healthcare agency was insufficient for meeting higher expenses that resulted from inflation. Provide $43.2 million in state funds to increase rates and contracts by 8% (garnering a federal match of $16.8 million). Pass A1143/S1032 to ensure the State considers a cost-of-living adjustment for human services’ rates and contracts each year. Pass S2504/A3937 to set Medicaid rates for mental health services equal to Medicare rates for the same services. During the pandemic, Michael, along with many of his coworkers, experienced more than a doubling of his caseload with no increase in wages. The significant number of additional hours needed to serve his new and existing clients would have prevented him from being able to work his second job. The extra workload also made the social work/counseling role much more stressful than rewarding and led to depression, which also manifested as chronic headaches and stomach cramps, in addition to feelings of hopelessness. To safeguard his physical and mental health, as well as to meet his fiscal responsibilities, Michael had to make the difficult decision to leave the behavioral healthcare agency. He feels bad about leaving his clients and is concerned about their wellbeing, as the staffing change means they will likely experience either difficulties adjusting to a new counselors, or have their care disrupted due to the clients’ decisions to no longer receive services or staff’s inability to keep up with their increasing caseloads.