DECATUR - Heritage Behavioral Health Center began laying off employees last week, joining other local social service agencies that began letting people go July 1 because of the state budget crisis.

Diana Knaebe, president and CEO of Heritage, said she laid off more than 20 of the agency's 230 employees and cut the salaries of most of those remaining by 5 percent to 15 percent, effective Monday.

"Staff at the lowest pay levels did not get a pay cut, and I have a list of 50 more staff who will get laid off if things don't turn around in Springfield this week," she said.

Knaebe was referring to the reconvening of the General Assembly on Monday in an effort to pass a state budget for fiscal year 2010.

Programs eliminated so far assist people 17 and younger with mental illness and/or substance abuse problems, many of whom are in the Macon County Circuit Court system.

Knaebe said she also has given 90-day layoff notices to three of her four psychiatrists and said Heritage will be able to provide only crisis triage if its state contract remains $4 million less than the one for the year that ended June 30.

"We will only be doing minimal, first-aid type of stuff," she said. "This is just devastating."

Dove Inc. and Macon Resources Inc. already laid off 19 and 14 people, respectively, with no reprieve in sight.

Gone at Dove are Fresh Start Catering and the diversity program, among other cuts. Macon Resources eliminated 26 positions that provided group care for adults and children, a sheltered work program for people with developmental disabilities, support that allowed clients to live independently and a self-advocacy program.

Other agencies surveyed by the Herald & Review, on the other hand, are retaining staff and programs for the most part in hopes state funding will come through.

Those agencies include Baby TALK, Community Health Improvement Center and Macon County Health Department. The health department's car safety seat loaner program, however, has been suspended.

The Macon County Child Advocacy Center and Webster-Cantrell Hall are coping with funding reductions but continue to provide core services because of a U.S. District Court order requiring the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to maintain programs.

Jean Moore, executive director of the advocacy center, said this is allowing her to keep two of the three staff members who had been notified their last day was July 2. "We don't know when, if or how we'll ever get paid, but we're providing services at this time," she said.

The center provides a safe, neutral environment for abused children to be interviewed and legal advocacy including assistance in obtaining orders of protection and preparing to testify in court. It serves about 175 children a year in Macon and Piatt counties.

The situation is much the same for the Community Home Environmental Learning Project, which provides in-home care to about 220 elderly people that makes it possible for them to remain in their homes.

Executive Director Diane Drew said Charles Johnson, director of the Illinois Department on Aging, has notified her that its community care program is a "legally required social service" that must be provided.

tchurchill@herald-review.com|421-7978