The dedication of any new state funds to programs that serve Kansans with mental illness is good news, but Gov. Sam Brownback’s $9.5 million mental health initiative falls well short of restoring the funding that the state’s community mental health centers have lost in recent years.

The biggest portion of the funding — $7 million — comes from the the state’s federally funded block grant for Termporary Assistance for Needy Families and will be earmarked to expand the state’s family preservation efforts. Phyllis Gilmore, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families said last week her department hadn’t determined exactly how those funds will be used but the goal would be to keep families together and find employment and treatment for people with mental illness.

The remaining $2.5 million in the governor’s initiative will be directed at some laudable goals including support for substance-abuse treatment facilities and grants to help keep people with mental illness out of jail, prison and state hospitals. Of that $2.5 million, just $1 million will go to strengthen programs for the uninsured at the state’s community mental health centers.

In a column in the May issue of his organization’s newsletter, Randall Allen, executive director of the Kansas Association of Counties, points to some numbers that put that $1 million in perspective. Since 2007, he wrote, the state’s 27 licensed community mental health centers, have seen a $15 million reduction in mental health reform grants from the state, along with a $31.2 million reduction in money from the state general fund alone and $52.2 million from all state funds.

In the last 10 years, Allen wrote, patient loads at the community centers have doubled, largely as a result of efforts to move people with mental illness out of institutions and into community settings. Since 2007, he said, those centers have seen a 24 percent increase in the overall number of people served, and the majority of those people are uninsured.

Allen’s organization is particularly interested in this situation because county governments have stepped up to fill part of that funding gap, but local county appropriations for mental health services have grown by only $2.2 million since 2007, so community centers are still significantly behind.

Mental health advocates said Brownback’s plan was a step forward but decried the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid coverage for the mentally ill. A National Alliance on Mental Illness analysis last year estimated that more than 21,000 mentally ill and uninsured Kansans would be eligible for Medicaid if the expansion was approved. That money would benefit not only the individuals but the community mental health centers that provide their care.

Brownback’s initiative responds to a list of recommendations from a task force he appointed in the wake of elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn. Mental health services have become a public safety as well as a public health issue. According to the Health Care Foundation of Kansas City, untreated severe mental illness in Kansas costs the private sector, including employers, nearly $429 million a year; the total annual cost to the state in terms of care and lost productivity is $1.17 billion.

That doesn’t include the vast human toll on Kansans with mental illness and their families. The governor’s initiative is a step in the right direction, but more help is needed.