Instead of writing letters or making calls to her state lawmakers, a Benzie County woman is using a popular video sharing website to get her message across.
MANISTEE -- It's not your typical way of contacting state lawmakers, but Kelli Stapleton of Benzie County decided that using the popular video sharing website- YouTube might get her message across.
Her 10 year old daughter, Isabel is autistic. So with the state budget deadline approaching, $40 million dollars worth of cuts slated for Community Mental Health could directly affect her family.
"We get services through the state of Michigan because of Isabel's disability and truly we need those. This is a difficult disability to deal with," says Stapleton.
Stapleton is also on the board of the Manistee-Benzie Community Mental Health Services.
She created the video complete with music and explains how the state's services help her family.
"I thought YouTube would be a little fun for them to see, they would get a look at me and get maybe just a feeling for the situation....This is a rural area up here an dour disabilities are the same as others throughout the state and we're not really funded equally and I don't understand that," says Stapleton.
"There's a large disparity in the funding levels of various CMH's...They're what we call 'general fund money, state monies' which gives us latitude to serve the mentally ill and folks who are not on Medicaid," says executive director with the Manistee-Benzie Community Mental Health, Joseph 'Chip' Johnston.
Stapleton and the other board members hope the video gives lawmakers a *visual message they can remember.
"It is my daughter but it's not a huge leap to see where she's going to be 10 years from now. There are people like her. It's a particularly vulnerable group of people and I know the budget is a complicated issue but wow, I think we really have to be careful with this particular population," says Stapleton.
Click here to watch her entire video.
