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Aaron Kaufman's 25-year-old brother, Jay, is severely disabled and relies on others to help him shower, shave, brush his teeth and eat.

Kaufman of Chevy Chase, who has a less severe form of cerebral palsy, said his brother, who lives in Silver Spring, also relies on a resource coordinator to ensure that he receives quality care and that his wishes are honored at the group home where he lives.

Aaron Kaufman, 22, said last week's state budget cuts that reduced funding for the Department of Health and Human Services will hurt the level of care received by his brother and others who are developmentally disabled.

The Board of Public Works approved $454 million in budget cuts last week, including $60.2 million to health services statewide.

County spokesman Patrick Lacefield said the total loss of state aid for Montgomery County is $18.8 million in the fiscal 2010 budget, but that could change as more cuts are realized. Municipalities will share $4.8 million in losses — for a countywide loss of $23.6 million in the current budget year, which began July 1.

Of that total, Montgomery County will lose $2.7 million in funding for local health programs, including $1.1 million from DHHS services.

Nearly one-fourth of the local DHHS reduction — $627,000 — will come from programs for the developmentally disabled.

Local officials and disabilities advocates say the end result of the DHHS reductions will be a loss in the quality and availability of services for the county's most vulnerable residents.

Montgomery County has about 108,000 residents with a disability, according to 2000 U.S. Census data — roughly 9.5 percent of the county's total population.

Montgomery County Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At large) of North Bethesda said the cuts will have a "devastating impact." Trachtenberg, who is a professional clinical therapist and has a son with schizophrenia, called the cuts "intolerable."

She is urging that officials advocate on behalf of the developmentally disabled and others who cannot fight for their own funding.

Trachtenberg said she also is concerned about the long-term consequences of cutting $221,000 in local funds for cancer screening and prevention and $68,000 from tobacco prevention programs.

Respite care for adults also was cut locally by $50,000 and nearly $1 million statewide.

The recent DHHS budget reductions include a 15 percent cut to resource coordination services, like the kind used by Jay Kaufman. Those services help the disabled get the care they need.

To cope with a cut to resource coordination services, it is likely that providers will reduce the number of resource coordinators available to the disabled or increase the number of clients they take on, said Jay Kenney, chief of aging and disability services for the county DHHS.

Currently, one resource coordinator serves about 50 clients, he said.

"I'm sure that will grow, but there's a point where they cannot deliver even adequate service," Kenney said.

Trachtenberg said the disabled and their families will be waiting longer for services — if they receive them at all — as a result of the cuts.

Joyce Taylor, executive director of Arc of Montgomery County, said the family services it provides for about 3,500 people each year will suffer as a result of the cuts. The Arc is a nonprofit organization and gets about 75 percent of its $24 million budget from the state in fiscal 2010.

She said the organization, which is a service provider for the county's DHHS, is bracing for about $425,000 in reductions in state and local funding.

Ulma Ahluwalia, director of the county DHHS, said the department had not yet determined the impact of the cuts.

The county had expected to receive $53 million of its $268 million budget from the state in fiscal 2010.

"These are very painful times and we've reached a point now where any type of cut is going to have a service impact," she said.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said Tuesday that his priority will be reducing the budget cuts' impact on public safety, education and the county's vulnerable populations — including those affected by the DHHS reductions.

"It will be hard because we're hurting in other areas as well," he said.