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Mental Health, Drug Addiction Services May Avoid Budget Cuts

by Sarah Jane Tribble

In his first two-year budget, Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish proposed a $6.8 million reduction in funding last week to the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County.

But, within days of the announcement for Cuyahoga County's new two-year budget proposal, ADAMHS Board CEO William Denihan was in a meeting with Budish to talk options. Options that could restore his budget.

"It may or may not do that, but at least we're sitting down and talking about that. And hopefully we can come up with a remedy and resolution to solve that," Denihan says.

At a time when the county's heroin addiction crisis is at an all-time high, and questions about mental health services are in the news, the county department provides services to address such topics has a proposal from the Budish administration.

Denihan would not elaborate or provide details but said, if it works, it would help families. The County executive's staff confirmed that conversations were going on and  "everyone was exploring possibilities."

When announcing the cuts last week, Budish said he believed the adjustments do not harm services and do not require layoffs. 

Denihan says that if the cut happens, it would be a 5 percent reduction in services for the board.

(ideastream reporter Nick Castele contributed to this report).