The Mississippi State Personnel Board on Thursday approved the state department of mental health's plan to cut 129 positions before the new fiscal year begins July 1, according to Mississippi Today.
The department of health expects to make the job cuts at three hospitals and health centers due to a more than $14 million budget shortfall going into next fiscal year, according to the report.
Ryan Beard, director of Human Capital Core Processes for MSPB, said three of the job cuts will come from the elimination of the Early Intervention Program at North Mississippi Regional Center in Oxford, the report states. That program is under the Mississippi State Department of Health. DMH spokesperson Adam Moore said in the report people will still be able to access the program through other providers in Mississippi.
Fifty-three of the layoffs will come from DMH's transfer of operations of the Crisis Stabilization Unit Footprints Adult Day Service Program and Footprints Adult Day Services Program to Meridian, Miss.-based Weems Community Health Center, Mr. Beard said in the report. Additionally, 69 people who work at the adolescent complex at Meridian-based East Mississippi State Hospital will be laid off when DMH eliminates the program, and four open positions will remain unfilled, the report states, adding "patients served by the program will be transferred to Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield."
The 129 job cuts is part of the DMH's overall plan to lay off 650 positions by June 2018, reports Mississippi Today.