Staff writer
Concerns about state funding levels was a prime topic Friday at the Marion County Interagency team meeting in Marion.
The state Children’s Initiative Fund provides money for many childhood programs and administers early childhood block grants.
According to Marion County Communities in Schools Director Linda Ogden, Marion County agencies receive about $160,000 each year from the CIF fund. She said funding might be cut by 50 percent.
Ogden said legislators do not realize how interdependent and interrelated the various social services are.
Diedre Serene, Marion County Health Department director, said she expects her department to experience decreases but the decrease should not affect much of the service it provides.
Gretchen Wagner, administrator of Parkside Homes, Hillsboro, said she opposes a proposed bed tax of $4 or $5 per resident per day. Parkside Homes Chief Executive Officer Lou Janzen said the bed tax plus cuts in Medicaid could increase costs by up to $10 per day per resident, a huge increase.
Ogden said Marion County Communities in Schools also is concerned about funding. The question is, “Which taxes should be raised?”
“Like everyone else, we’re going along fine right now, but the future is uncertain,” Ogden said.
Everyone may need “active calming” as the funding crisis continues.
Cheri Ochs Wheeler, a clinical social worker with Prairie View Mental Health Services, presented a lesson titled “Active Calming” in the Conscious Discipline series by Dr. Becky Bailey. “You have to first get yourself calm before you can help someone else,” she said.
She emphasized the need for deep breathing as a way to calm down when things get tense or emotions run high. It is called the S.T.A.R. strategy: Stop, Take a deep breath, And Relax.
“Take a breath and say, ‘I am safe,’” she instructed. “Take another breath and say, ‘I am calm.’ Take a third breath and say ‘I can handle this.’”
The breathing may be accentuated with arm actions that indicate breathing in and breathing out.
Wheeler said this strategy could work in any situation, whether it be between two adults, between an adult and a child, or between two children. She said children in a classroom could be taught how to do the S.T.A.R. technique, so when things get out of hand or noisy, the teacher can use it to calm things down.
“When kids understand it, they will help in the classroom and help other kids,” she said.
It might be a good strategy for everyone to learn in these stressful, uncertain times.