Body Painting Women Isurance

Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others were shot Saturday, has seen more than 45 percent of its mental health services recipients forced off the public rolls.

But according to Clarke Romans, executive director for southern Arizona's branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the state government ignored requests for relief, citing the need to implement strict budget controls.

Now, in the wake of this weekend's horrific shootings, reports on the seemingly crazed mental state of the alleged shooter -- who was not, apparently, enrolled in any public treatment program -- is leading politicians, reporters and activists to take a fresh look at the funding of mental health care.

Arizona didn't always lag in this department. As Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic noted, "a 2009 survey by the National Association for the Mentally Ill reported that, statewide, mental health services had actually improved over the previous three years, to the point where the organization bumped Arizona's grade from a "D+" to a "C.""

A call to the governor's office to both confirm Romans' assessment of the situation and seek further comment was not immediately returned. But a Democratic state Senate aide offered a similarly dire view of Arizona's mental health facilities, predicting that things will get worse.

"We are facing a budget deficit of epic proportions and we know that there are more cuts coming, there is just no way around it," the aide said. "We have to be vigilant in the way those cuts are made."