DIRECTOR'S REPORT

It is certainly no secret that our State, our Nation and indeed our whole world is in the midst of a very serious recession.  In our area of Connecticut people are feeling the effects of this recession.  Families are struggling financially and this places the services that our Clinic offers into even more of a central position than it has during good times.  Many of the people who are coming to our Clinic are underemployed.  People who have had long-term employment which was career based are now finding themselves in lesser position for lower salaries or lower hourly rates of pay.  An increasing number of our families are unemployed with little or no hope of finding employment in the near future.  At the same time our State finds itself in a serious financial crisis and is having to cut back on its own expenditures.  The effect of this systemic recession, which includes underemployment, unemployment, State cutbacks and a resultant increase in poverty, is that more families are under more stress than ever before.

At our Clinic we have seen an increase in the number of Husky clients who are seen at the Clinic, which is indicative of more and more of our citizens needing to secure their insurance through Medicaid.  We are also seeing an increase in uninsured clients coming to our Clinic.  Even those who have jobs find that their commercial insurance provides less and less benefits for more and more cost.  In our clientele we see an increase in those who are now making use of free or low-cost school lunches at their children’s schools and we increasingly see families who have absolutely no discretionary income to apply to their family’s needs.

An example of this is a family which included a mother, a father and two children that recently came to our Clinic.  The father has had a steady job for ten years working in a building trade.  His hours were initially cut back by his employer.  Six months later he was laid off.  Because of the specialty nature of his work he couldn’t find additional employment in his field so he began to work mowing lawns to raise funds for his family.  He then injured his back and at that point the family had no income and no insurance.  This situation has put incredible stress on the family and over the course of several months marital issues have arisen and the family is currently on the brink of divorce.  The impact on the children, who came here for reasons separate from this, is dramatic.  Both have become anxious, their performance in school has diminished, their behavior with each parent is more aggressive than it had been previously, and much of the behavior we see in the two children is seen as reactive to the stress the family is currently undergoing.

 A second case involves an autistic child who was referred to our Clinic.  They had earlier received services through the State’s Birth-to-Three Program.  There have been State cutbacks and included in this was that the case managers for children who have autism have been reduced or removed from the State budget.  These home-based services and case manager coordinator people, who had provided an invaluable service to these children and their families, are no longer available.  Then we find these families applying to our Clinic because they have no other resources.

The recession, underemployment and unemployment have resulted in what is euphemistically referred to diagnostically as an increase in “adjustment disorders”.  At this point we are flooded with such situations where we see an increase in symptoms in children and difficulties in families resulting from the stress in their environment.  This stress has to do with the families’ inability to maintain themselves financially.  Our current economy is more serious than ever.  People have less and less supports and this will have a long-term impact on the families whom we serve and for our society.  The recession impacts health and people don’t go to doctors as frequently.  In particular it impacts long-term mental health needs and we will see the consequences of this over a long period of time.

Despite anticipated cutbacks from State, local and private sources, we will struggle to maintain services and to provide what we can to our community to strengthen families.  We will accomplish this through the on-going efforts of the support of our Board of Directors and our dedicated staff of professionals.

Sincerely,

Clifford Johnson, ACSW,LCSW

Executive Director