New budget may save state millions, speed services for mentally retarded

Kiley Russell

Wednesday, April 21, 1999 | 9:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY - More funding could help shorten the wait mentally retarded Nevadans face for services, a budget panel said Tuesday.

Gov. Kenny Guinn first proposed a $156 million budget for the Division of Mental Hygiene-Mental Retardation.

But in previous hearings, activists and legislators alike worried that the budget wouldn't provide enough money for such services as residential placement, family support and job training.

A revised proposal boosts funding by $5.7 million over the next two years and would eliminate the wait for services, the division's director, Carlos Brandenburg, said Tuesday.

To keep the spending plan from going any higher, the new budget eliminates 54 beds in group homes and instead keeps clients in the community with social worker supervision. About 20 agency staff positions would be phased out.

"Most importantly, this will be reducing the waiting list so that we will be totally reducing it by the end of the biennium," Brandenburg said.

Waiting lists for residential placements would drop from 225 to zero, and more job training and other services would be provided to help keep people with mental problems out of institutions, he said.

"This is a breakthrough, this is a great leap forward," said Assemblywoman Jan Evans, D-Sparks, a member of the budget subcommittee.

The division's waiting list dilemma came to a head when the parents of an autistic child sued, resulting in a 1998 ruling that required the state to provide services to a broader range of mentally retarded people.

Even though the division got another $5 million to meet demands in the current two-year cycle, the funding problem and long waiting list remain.