The Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health came out at about the same time that our agency was told by the County Executive's office that we would lose 50 percent of our contract money from Nassau County. Bad enough, but totally horrible when we realized that our actual cut would be double, since every dollar of the Nassau County contract is matched by the state and their money would be gone as well. If this went through, we could end up losing 20 percent of our total treatment staff. We, of course, would not be the only ones affected. Over 100 vital agencies in our County that take care of the needs of many of our children and youth could be devastated.

All this happened on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Day, another day of disaster. All this happened, as I ironically mentioned, at the very time that the most comprehensive mental health report ever issued in our country came out. The Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health was hitting the wire services and making big headlines. The report called for parity between the treatment of mental health and physical health. The report also said that one in five children had a diagnosable mental health problem with only a small percentage being treated for their problems. And the report emphasized how much more success we are having (greater than ever before) in treating mental illness. Finally, the report confirmed what common sense and practice has discovered about children. Parents need to get a proper professional diagnosis for developmental and behavioral problems, and get it early. The report was insistent that parents not allow the stigma of mental illness to affect their search for answers and proper treatment.

Pathetic, isn't it? If the county goes through with its proposed cut it saves a little less than $10 million. The social agencies affected, however, stand to lose as much as 25 million dollars because of state and federal matching money. Some agencies are so dependent on government contracts that they will sink into oblivion. Others will barely survive. Even these will take a long time, if ever, to make a comeback to an acceptable level of service.

In a week where I engaged in protests, legislative hearings, and talking to knowledgeable budget experts, I did not encounter one person who thought this made any sense. I did on the other hand hear the typical "but what can we do". We have a budget crisis and sacrifices are necessary. My answer "Let the sacrifices come from the bloated bureaucracy, not from the barely surviving social agencies whose budgets have been successively cut by Nassau County almost every year in the past five years and whose cupboards are empty. I do admit realistically that even my answer, which is heartfelt, sounds more like a slogan than a solution. So let me pose some questions which might lead to some answers.

Isn't this the time for Nassau County to seek help from the State of New York? It's only a short time ago that New York City's budget crisis was solved by the state which imposed a fiscal management board that reorganized its finances and saved the city. It's even a shorter time ago that a bankrupt Orange County was rescued by the State of California.

It would take legal expertise that I do not posses to understand totally the possibilities of this kind of solution. But why should it not be considered on a non-partisan basis. Shouldn't business, communal and civic leaders be seeking a long term solution rather than allow partisan political rancor to result in banded non solutions?

Couldn't the state in a stop gap measure preserve their matching grants to the contract agencies and maybe even come up with a formula for a ten million dollar rescue fund?

It seems to me that we need some creative advocacy by our state senators and assemblymen. The new Nassau County Legislature should also be heard on this. They are surely influential enough to say to Governor Pataki and Controller McCall "Give us a break and, in return the county will accept a state monitoring system that will guarantee that it puts its house in order again."

This request for a little extra compassion at the time of the holiday season and the new millennium is not asking too much. On the state and federal levels, at least, we are awash in unprecedented surpluses. Find me a better time for some generosity. In this season of celebration we can make whole again those who are about to be victimized by unwise number crunchers. Cancel the cuts. Let's enter the new century with joy and optimism.