State agency and KU mental health research center sever ties after contract dispute

A Kansas state agency and a KU center for mental health research severed a 30-year relationship this week after a contract dispute, leaving more than 20 people without jobs as of Friday.

The Center for Mental Health Research and Innovation at the University of Kansas declined to accept a last-minute contract offer Thursday from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services that would have slashed its budget by 50 percent and given KDADS greater control over how staff performed their jobs.

The agency said the center rejected three offers to extend the contract, including an offer that would have kept its current contract totaling more than $1 million in place through June 2017. The contract includes providing support to community mental health centers statewide to implement evidence-based practices and training CMHC staff.

Rick Goscha, the center’s director, said in an email Friday to a Kansas official with the National Alliance on Mental Health that less than four hours before the center was about to be forced to lay off staff, KDADS secretary Tim Keck offered a contract that would have reduced the center’s budget by 50 percent and moved the contract to an hourly rate in August.

The hourly change, according to Goscha, would have allowed KDADS to pick what tasks they wanted performed by the center at what rates. He argued this would leave remaining staff in limbo until the agency decided whether their expertise was wanted.

“It is clear to us that KDADS has no vision for mental health and they clearly do not want to be accountable for their decisions. This is bad business,” Goscha wrote in the email, which was forwarded to media. “Even worse, it sends a message that this administration is not only willing to continue making devastating cuts into mental health, but now they have abdicated their responsibility to ensure that the dollars they do invest in community mental health are going to services and practices that make a difference.

“It also sends a message that they do not value continuous improvement efforts to build on the success we have had over the years.”

Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokeswoman, said the agency wasn’t ending its funding of evidence-based practices. She called the funding “an essential part of our continued commitment to excellence.”

KDADS will be evaluating ways to continue to deliver tasks related to evidence-based practices, she said.

“We regret that our former contractor decided to no longer participate in this project. The stumbling block appears to have been the state’s decision to go to hourly-rate billing for these administrative tasks in order to ensure the utmost accountability for the expenditures of state and federal tax dollars,” de Rocha said. “All of our other university partners have expressed willingness to adjust their programs to the new billing requirements.”

Funding hasn’t been cut to mental health or mental health services, de Rocha said. She also said funding hasn’t been cut to CMHCs, and CMHC staff will continue to have access to mandated training.