CONCORD, N.H. — A woman who credits mental health treatment with saving her life said Monday that proposed state budget cuts would put both her and her children at risk.

Cabrinni Kulish spoke at a news conference about her opposition to the House Finance Committee’s plan to save $6.7 million a year by reducing the number of adults eligible for mental health services and $5.8 million a year by changing eligibility rules for children. The state’s 10 community mental health centers say that will eliminate treatment for 3,500 children and more than 4,000 adults.

Kulish, who has struggled with major depression for decades, said she would lose her services, as would two of her children.

“In 2003 I couldn’t brush my teeth, I couldn’t get out of bed, I couldn’t think straight, and I was the parent of three children,” she said. “I received treatment, and now, I’m able to return to work. Had I not received the treatment, had I not received the counseling and care, I would not be here today.”

She described her daughter, who gets help for anxiety, and her son, who has autism.

“He has the potential to be a graphic artist. He has the potential to be a working citizen in our community. Take away the treatment and care for him too, and you’re going to have somebody who’s dependent on the state of New Hampshire for many, many years, and is a danger to society without treatment,” she said.

The New Hampshire Behavioral Health Association, which represents the centers, organized the news conference and asked each center to write short profiles of 100 clients whose treatment is threatened by the budget plan. The profiles, which don’t identify the clients, included a suicidal 50-year-old woman with a history of sexual and physical abuse.

That woman recently told her counselors that without them, she wouldn’t be alive, said Vic Topo, CEO of the Center for Life Management in Derry.

“Are we seriously going to let that happen? That would be despicable,” he said.

Louis Josephson, CEO of Riverbend Community Mental Health in Concord, said the proposed cuts have been a topic of discussion on the center’s Facebook page.

“The people we serve are more compassionate than the people passing these laws,” Josephson said.

 

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