Bush Admin Won't Fund Mental Health Svcs For Katrina-Scarred Children-Cutoff contradicts Congress

[babylonsister]

LSU mental service loses grant
Cutoff contradicts congressional order


WASHINGTON -- Despite a congressional directive to make mental health services for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast a financial priority, the Bush administration has rejected an application by a prominent children's program in New Orleans that now faces cutbacks.

The co-director of the Louisiana State University program, which evaluates and treats children in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, said services will be scaled back "very considerably" without the $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"The children are the most traumatized in the United States," said Howard Osofsky, chairman of the psychiatry department at LSU Health Sciences Center. "If we are going to prevent the scars and give them the best chance to succeed, they really need these services."

The administration said it is still looking into what occurred but said Congress' failure to approve a spending bill last year for the Department of Health and Human Services might have played a role.

"That would certainly have a big influence on it," said Kay Springer, spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which awards the grants.

more...

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1192170399153600.xml&coll=1

[applegrove]

1. The * WH are all a bunch of ASSHOLES!

[PA Democrat]

2. George Bush doesn't care about children, either.