The single mother wept when she learned last week that a workshop for parents of disabled children, something that offered her a glimmer of hope, had been eliminated in the state's recent round of budget cuts.
"One of the worst things to feel is that I have no more tools," she said. "My parenting skills are obsolete."
Beacham is emotionally raw from the intense responsibilities that come with caring for 9-year-old Maddie, who has a chromosomal disorder that causes her to behave half her age. The girl is obsessive-compulsive and relies on her mother to bathe and, often, to dress her. A brain anomaly affects her coordination and balance. Her congenital heart defect and a bacterial infection led to open heart surgery and life-threatening seizures.
Yet Beacham, like hundreds of other Utah families, remains on a wait list for services that could significantly improve her and her daughter's lives.
The six-week workshop she hoped to attend was an attempt to provide some guidance and assistance to desperate families who remain on the list. Those who participated before the budget cuts learned problem solving, communication tools and networked - realizing they aren't alone.
Beacham, who struggled to control her daughter as she melted down at an orthodontist's office this week, questions the trade-offs legislators made.
"I would ask them to wager the cost of giving funding to a group of families who are in crisis mode . . . versus the cost of incarcerating someone who [will cross] the line and hurt one of these children because they were at wit's end," she said.
Utah's disabled population is just one of many groups that will see direct impacts from the Legislature's decision to shave about $11 million from the Department of Human Services budget for the current year. The cut will lead to an additional $4.4 million loss in federal dollars.
Because some of the cuts were administrative, DHS clients were not universally affected. But multiple programs, from substance abuse prevention to the foster care citizen review board, will feel the effects. And programs for the disabled took perhaps the widest array of hits.
In cutting the family workshops, the state will save $129,500. The workshops began in July 2007 and had served about 70 families by August.
"It's really sad that they won't be able to find the similar community that feels more like they do than anyone else," said Megan Black, 28, of Saratoga Springs, whose 3-year-old son has cerebral palsy, vision and hearing problems. Black now uses some of the skills she learned at the workshop to try to better communicate with him.
Claire Mantonya, the executive director of the Utah Developmental Disabilities Council, had called legislators during the recent budget negotiations and asked: "Can we think about putting people first?"
Infrastructure projects can be put on hold, she said this week. "People's lives are happening right now."
The council lost about $100,000 in state funding, which will limit development of new projects.
Other impacts to the disabled community include keeping approximately 55 more people waiting for services such as respite care, which can provide supervision for a disabled child and give parents a break.
The disabilities ombudsman, who mediated complaints and reviewed cases involving the Division of Services for People with Disabilities, was also eliminated, saving $96,300.
"I think people are going to lose another voice for them," said Travis Coleman, who holds the position. His office, which had existed for several years, provided another layer of accountability, he said.
"Our society is only as great as our least fortunate," said Beacham. "We as a community, as a society have a very fervent obligation, you can call it a spiritual obligation, you can call it a patriotic obligation . . . we need to take care of each other." jlyon@sltrib.com
