Press Herald publishes column on state budget cuts by Tom Chalmers McLaughin

The on Feb. 2, 2010 published an op-ed column by Thomas Chalmers McLaughlin, Ph.D., associate professor of social work, on the economic and social costs of cuts in the state mental health budget. "As co-director of the Center for Research and Evaluation in the School of Social Work at the ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ, I have been collecting data from 102 local police and county sheriff’s offices across the state on the number and frequency of mental health-related service calls. The data demonstrate that since 2008 – the beginning of the state’s budget crisis and increasingly large cuts to mental health and other social services – there has been a 26 percent increase in mental health-related calls for service." The outcome of state cuts "is quite clear: Further budget cuts will most certainly result in higher emergency, hospital, law enforcement and corrections costs over time. And these costs are shifted from state (and federally matched) funds to community property taxes."

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The ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.