Kevin Cullen’s column (“A list far too long,” Metro, Jan. 11) accurately portrays the current health care crisis for individuals and families seeking outpatient mental health services. The experiences Cullen describes of the mother and child seeking mental health services are all too common in Massachusetts today.

The Association for Behavioral Healthcare represents more than 80 community-based organizations that offer mental health and addiction treatment services. A number of our members in recent years have closed outpatient mental health clinics or reduced their capacity to serve individuals and families because of woefully inadequate reimbursement rates by Medicaid and commercial insurers. Poor reimbursement rates result in significant operating losses for clinics across Massachusetts. These organizations have taken the difficult steps of closing clinics so that mounting financial losses do not impair their ability to offer other services they provide in their communities.