Tim DeWeese, the center's clinical director, said one of his patients who had finished college and gotten a job and an apartment became homeless after his doctor visits were cut off.
"It came crashing down all the way," DeWeese said.
Oklahoma also cut mental health programs in 2010 and 2011. But Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, a conservative elected in the GOP landslide of 2010 on a promise to cut spending, reversed course last year after grim warnings about the effect on public safety, and after several teen suicides in Oklahoma City.
"There just weren't enough resources," said Harry Tyler, director of the Mental Health Association of Central Oklahoma.
Fallin approved a 20 percent budget increase and has pledged to make mental health a priority again this year.
"You'll see more emphasis on being able to identify people that might have mental health challenges," she said.
Tyler said he would encourage Fallin to provide more money for screening teenagers who could endanger themselves or others.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another Republican, has promised to fully implement a new program under which people are required to take medication and attend therapy if a judge believes they pose a risk.
Mike Hammond, executive director of Kansas' Association of Community Mental Health Centers, said his state's governor is looking for new ideas on mental health care.
"I think he's realized what's happening in our system," Hammond said.
To be sure, Republicans have not given up on keeping state government lean and taxes low. And some party members question how much mental health spending will be approved.
"I'm not telling you she gets the money," former South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson said of Haley.
Ty Masterson, Republican chairman of the Kansas Senate's Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged the same conflict: "There's obviously tension there."
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Ia. Associated Press writers Seanna Adcox in Columbia, S.C., John Hanna in Topeka, Kans., Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Nick Riccardi in Denver also contributed to this report.
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Follow Beaumont on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TomBeaumont .
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