RALEIGH (AP) — Advocates for the mentally ill, developmentally disabled and substance abusers have complained for years that North Carolina state government hasn’t spent enough on treating and stabilizing patients.

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But they argue 2009 is so bad the General Assembly should return for a special session to ease what they call an emergency, just like they would in the aftermath of a storm.

With $400 million in spending reductions for treatment required in the budget approved in August, the state’s 24 local mental health offices that coordinate care have less money to pay for services and have to limit them.

Private and nonprofit treatment providers have quit offering some services because the state’s payment rates have been reduced, putting their employees out of work, the advocates said.

“It’s a crisis. It’s a manmade crisis,” Jennifer Mahan, chairwoman of The Coalition, a collection of individuals and groups advocating for people with mental illness, disabilities and addictions. “If this was a hurricane that destroyed people’s homes and wiped away businesses ... we would be taking action.”

Even before The Coalition could hold a news conference Wednesday to call on Gov. Beverly Perdue to restore an extra $15 million she withheld from the local mental health offices in addition to the $40 million in the budget, the governor responded.

Perdue said Tuesday that the Department of Health and Human Services had identified $15 million that “will be directed toward the struggling community service arena.”

The group also wants Perdue to call the Legislature back to Raleigh to shift funding around and find other pots of money to restore services.

The budget cuts are reducing hope for people such as Kelly Woodall of Raleigh, who has cerebral palsy.

With little use of her hands, Woodall is worried she’ll have to give up her apartment because lawmakers decided to put an enrollment freeze on a health and personal care program that helps people with disabilities live at home.

“The budget cuts are acting out in real life,” said Woodall, 26. “Without these services, I would be put in a nursing home, which is more costly for the government.”

It’s a long shot for the groups to persuade Perdue to call lawmakers back to Raleigh before the next regular session in May, especially for changes in a $19 billion budget the Legislature just approved and the governor signed two months ago.

About a dozen special sessions have been held over the past 15 years, many to approve new legislative district boundaries or large economic incentives packages to recruit businesses.

Health and Human Services Secretary Lanier Cansler, who was appointed by Perdue to operate the department, acknowledges the spending reductions in his department are “unprecedented, almost historic.”

Cansler said the department, which comprises 20 percent of the state budget, received $1.5 billion less than was expected this year as Democratic lawmakers said they tried to close a $4.6 billion budget gap.

“You can’t take $400 million out of the mental health system or $1.5 billion out of the health care system and not have changes in the way things are done,” Cansler told reporters.

Cansler said to restore part or all of the $400 million, lawmakers would be forced to take funds from elsewhere in state government or find more revenues.

Mental Health Partners, a local mental health office that serves patients in Catawba and Burke counties, will receive $1.7 million less this year, equating to a nearly 13 percent decrease in expenditures, said John Hardy, the office’s area director.

Mental Health Partners has shifted its menu of services to ensure that people with severe problems will continue to receive the necessary level of services, Hardy said. But others with milder forms of mental illness or disabilities will have fewer services. For example, day treatment services will be reduced from five days a week to three.

Cansler said the state is working to minimize the effect the cuts have on necessary treatment.

The Mental Health Association in North Carolina, a nonprofit patient advocate group that also provides many services, has laid off 175 workers because the provider rates have become too low, according to Mahan, who is also the association’s policy director.

“As a nonprofit there’s no money for us to make up the difference,” Mahan said.

The Coalition wants the Legislature to find money to restore deep Medicaid cuts, many of which affect mental health patients and the disabled because the combination federal-state health care program pays for their treatment.

The group also wants higher alcohol taxes that took effect Sept. 1 to be dedicated specifically for treatment programs. Unnecessary administrative oversight should be suspended, while the state should be tracking how many jobs are lost due among service providers.

“It wouldn’t take a huge amount of money at this point to shore things up,” Mahan said.