Editorial

Editorial Teachers and other professionals in the field of deafness are well aware that there have never been residential treatment facilities available for those youth who were severely psychologically disturbed. This gaping absence of services has been devastating to deaf children (and their families) needing help for mental illness. After all these years of nothing, Michigan has finally made a breakthrough. The Hawthorn Center (Northville, Michigan 48167), long an outstanding residential treatment center for children, has over the last decade worked closely with the Michigan School for the Deaf and other programs in the state. Through this consultation their staff saw a need for services. In response they have developed an inpatient and outpatient mental health program for deaf youth at the Center. Unfortunately, Hawthorn takes only Michigan residents. However, in trying to share with others the principles they use in working with mentally ill deaf youth, the Center has developed a film on their work (available through Mr. Jim Haring of the Center). St. Elizabeth's Hospital (Washington, D.C. 20032) has an inpatient treatment program for mentally ill deaf adults. It has taken some deaf adolescents due to the lack of treatment alternatives for these youth. The new program in Connecticut may offer services to youth in that state, and Maryland now has an outpatient service for deaf mentally ill patients. BUDGET CHAOS AND DEAFNESS The chaos which has characterized the development of the upcoming federal budget leaves most of us unclear about the ultimate effects the process will have on deaf people. The Rehabilitation Services Administration funds for longterm training in deafness were cut some 33% for fiscal year 1980 which was a greater reduction than that experienced for any other rehabilitation discipline. For example, the corresponding budget for blindness was only cut 1.5%. Unfortunately, federal budgetary and policy decisions in both education and rehabilitation are frequently made by bureaucrats or politicians who have no in-depth knowledge of deafness . The capriciousness of the process was vividly revealed in the Atlantic Monthly's article on David Stockman. LEGAL ISSUES The argument over who should pay for interpreting services for deaf college students continues to rage. A New Jersey Federal Court recently ordered the State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, not Kean College, to pay in the case of Ruth Shomstein. Cases such as this illustrate another dimension of federal fiscal irresponsibility. When laws such as PL 94-142 and the V.R. Act of 1973 are passed dictating massive services without consideration of costs, the end result is money wasted. For example, if the Maryland Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) had to pay for interpreting services for all deaf college students in Maryland who requested interpreters, funds otherwise spent on more needy deaf clients would have to be diverted to college students. Until some coherent funding is developed for PL 94-142 and the V.R. Act of 1973, we will continue to have a situation in which federally passed legislation promises the "world" to handicapped people. At the same time expanding rights and services are being guaranteed by this gradiose legislation, the money to fund them is either not appropriated or else it is taken from existing funds for other already established programs for disabled persons. Whereas, the established programs had ways to set priorities which helped assure that the money was spent wisely, the court decisions growing out of PL 94-142 and the V.R. Act of 1973 make no pretense of even considering the economic effects of the verdicts. Thus, there is no prioritizing , only arbitrary court decrees which depend on who decided to litigate. It is ironic that the politicians and bureaucrats who conceive such irresponsible patently ridiculous financial foundations for legislation and programs for the disabled would never consider comparable plans for their own personal finances or the finances of their businesses. For handicapped children and adults the end result is that what sounds wonderful when enacted into law turns out to be a set of promises minus the collateral needed for implementation. Would it not be better to have more realistic legislation appropriately funded than the current deception of promising everything while appropriating for little or none of what is...