Mental health centers may not have to close

Wednesday, March 3, 2004

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Two mental health centers scheduled to close June 30 might remain open after all, the director of the state Department of Mental Health said Tuesday. Gov. Bob Holden, in his budget plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, proposed to save $7.4 million by closing the Cottonwood Children's Center in Cape Girardeau and the Southwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center in El Dorado Springs. But Dorn Schuffman, director of the Department of Mental Health, told a House appropriations committee Tuesday he thought both centers might be saved. "We're working on it. Having the money is the issue," Schuffman told reporters after the hearing. "With Cottonwood, we're very close."

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