Troubled Iowa adolescents who need help have no choice but to wait months for assistance from treatment programs due to state budget cuts.

“It’s an ongoing funding problem,” said George Belitsos, chief executive officer of Youth and Shelter Services. “It isn’t a sudden thing.”

Like many child welfare programs in Iowa, Belitsos’ organization has felt the effects of steadily decreasing funds from the state government.

“We’ve experienced, just as Iowa State has, three years of budget cuts from the state,” Belitsos said.

“We’ve lost about 30 percent of our state funding.”

Youth and Shelter Services receives approximately one-third of its funding from the state. Local donors such as the United Way, the Government of the Student Body, private donors, and Ames and Story County governments have responded to the “funding crisis,” but their efforts have not compensated for the loss of state money, Belitsos said.

The organization has had to lay off “quite a number” of employees and has reduced the number of drug treatment beds by half, Belitsos said.

Bob Kerksieck, director of YSS Chemical Dependency Treatment Services, said a lot of adolescents are waiting for treatment right now.

“I stopped paying attention when it got over 250,” Kerksieck said of the number on the waiting list. “I think it’s over 300 now.”

Kerksieck’s program provides drug treatment to hundreds of Iowa youth each year.

“For years, we’ve run one of the larger and more successful adolescent treatment programs in Iowa,” Kerksieck said.

In the last 10 years, more than 12 treatment programs in Iowa have closed their doors to troubled youth because of budget cuts, Kerksieck said. Many of these programs relied solely on state funding, which is expected to be cut again.

“One funding source has just sort of dried up,” Kerksieck said. “That means a whole lot of kids are not getting treatment.”

Kerksieck said it is important to reach troubled youth early. He said a lack of funding effects the program by forcing adolescents to wait for treatment, which, in turn, makes treatment less effective.

“Six [treatment] sessions on someone who has been arrested their first time and doesn’t have a serious problem will be much more successful than waiting until the person is three months into a meth addiction,” Kerksieck said.

Little can be done, however, to alleviate problems caused by the budget cuts, Belitsos said.

“It’s in the hands of the Legislature,” Belitsos said.

“We’re doing everything we can to make them aware of this serious problem.”