Mental Health Budget Cutbacks Could Risk Loss of Federal Funds : Finances: County programs could face restrictions as state and local budget woes combine to create a dismal outlook.

Hit by the one-two punch of state and local cuts, Ventura County’s mental health programs could be forced to give up some federal funding because the county cannot find the money to match it, officials said Wednesday.

What’s more, programs for desperately ill children and the homeless could be cut, and the Ventura County Medical Center could lose up to $3 million of its county funding.

“We will obviously survive,” county Health Care Agency director Phillipp K. Wessels told the Board of Supervisors. “(But) we’re going to have to make some serious budget cuts.”

The supervisors sat through three hours of grim testimony Wednesday in the fourth of six hearings where department heads explain the consequences of cuts that must be made to balance the county’s 1994-95 budget.

Wessels predicted what would happen in the worst case, if the state proceeds with $10 million to $12 million worth of cuts and the county lops 18% out of its health-care budget.

“We’re looking at a situation in mental health where they could be wiped out, their services reduced by a half,” Wessels said.

He acknowledged that ongoing lobbying efforts could soften the blow of state reductions and that the supervisors could back away from their most severe proposals.

But Wessels pointed out that many of the state’s cost-cutting initiatives are aimed directly at the low-income health care programs the county provides.

One proposal, for instance, would take as much as $1.8 million from the county hospital’s $100-million annual budget.

Another would take away federal funds meant to reimburse counties for processing Medi-Cal patients.

And the county’s 18% health-care reduction--the same proposed for most other departments--would cut another $1.2 million.

“I think it’s something we have to address,” Supervisor Susan Lacey said. “We’re clearly seeing what impact an 18% cut would have, and these are vitally important services.”

Hardest hit could be Mental Health Services, which, according to Director Randall Feltman, might lose so much funding that it could no longer match part of the $10.6 million expected in federal funds.

The portion not matched would be canceled.

“When you take out a little bit of yeast, you know what happens,” Feltman said.

The county hospital could lose about $1.2 million with county cuts on top of the potential $1.8-million loss from the state. Hospital Administrator Pierre Durand said he did not anticipate layoffs, but said that the hospital and its clinics would have to draw in more patients to make up for losses.

He said the cutbacks should not have any impact on a planned outpatient wing, which would be financed with long-term bonds and largely paid back with state funds.

The county submitted its plans for the $38-million addition to the state Tuesday.

In Public Health Services, state and federal funds pay completely for services such as immunizations for children and care for pregnant women.

But a few programs are vulnerable to cuts.

They are the $76,000 homeless treatment program, a $82,000 fund for family preventive care and a $4-million program to help physically disabled and catastrophically ill children.

The obvious choice for cuts, Public Health Officer Gary Feldman said, is the children’s program, because it is so large.

But for every dollar the county cuts from its share of the children’s care program, it loses $3 in state funds.

“When we find a child who needs care, we may have difficulty paying for it,” Feldman said.