I am proposing that you allow the Department $38, 230, 884 in total
funds for its operations in fiscal 1967. This is an increase of almost
$4 million in the mental hygiene appropriation.
The Board of Health and Mental Hygiene last year received a
comprehensive plan for community mental health services incorporat-
ing drastic revisions in the concept of the care for the mentally ill.
The report states that "Maryland has made great strides in developing
the understanding which must be the basis for community mental
health services" and then goes on to recommend that additional
emphasis be placed on community mental health services, to be
financed by Federal, State and local funds. The capital budget I
am presenting to you contains funds for the preparation of detailed
plans for Maryland's first comprehensive Community Mental Health
Center, to be located adjacent to the Medical School of the University
of Maryland in Baltimore. Money is also provided on a matching
basis for a fifth day hospital to be located in Baltimore County. For
the relief of the mentally retarded, $4 million is included in the
capital budget for the construction of the first phase of a 530-bed
facility in the Washington area, and $497, 800 is allotted for the
construction of a 60-bed unit for the severely retarded at Rosewood.
It should be noted, too, that an appropriation has been made for a
pilot project which will be the first community-based residential center
for the mentally retarded.
PUBLIC WELFARE
With liberal assistance from the Federal Government, Maryland
each year has been boosting its appropriations for the relief of the
poor, the homeless, the orphans, the handicapped. I am proposing
that the appropriation of the Department of Public Welfare be in-
creased in fiscal 1967 by almost $17. 5 million, of which $9. 6 million
is in Federal funds. This department is cooperating with the State
Health Department in expanding medical assistance programs and
improving the Federal-State public assistance program under the
Federal Medicare Act. Among its manifold responsibilities, it should
be pointed out that the Department of Public Welfare will expand
its plants and accelerate its treatment programs for juvenile delin-
quents.
MARINE RESOURCES
In 1960, the second year of my first term, the State of Maryland
undertook a drastic and ambitious program to halt its dwindling
48
|
|