WILLMAR -- An 18-county mental health consortium says the state's new system of providing mental health services has resulted in a shortage of beds in rural Minnesota for individuals with severe and chronic mental illness.
As a result, jails are sometimes used to house people who should instead be in a mental health hospital.
"The original plan isn't working," said Jay Kieft, Kandiyohi County Family Services director, during the Tuesday meeting of the Kandiyohi County Board of Commissioners. "It's a real issue for us."
The consortium is asking the state Department of Human Services to address the gaps in the system and find ways to increase the in-patient capacity for treating individuals with severe and challenging mental health needs.
After the state decided to stop using larger mental health institutions, such as the Willmar Regional Treatment Center, the 18 counties in the Southwestern Adult Mental Health Consortium worked with the Department of Human Services to develop a system to provide mental health care "closer to home."
ADVERTISEMENT
The redesigned system includes a continuum of care with a variety of programs, including Community Behavioral Health Hospitals. Those 16-bed hospitals, like the one currently under construction in Willmar, are described as "short-term, acute psychiatric hospitals" and are not designed to treat the chronic mental illness of concern to the consortium.
Kieft, in a later interview, said the state had counted on private mental health providers, including community hospitals, to be part of the continuum of care by providing long-term residential treatment for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness.
But that partnership with private providers hasn't happened according to plans, he said.
A number of the private providers "have been stepping away" from their contracts to provide 45-day residential treatment. He said the hospital in Worthington is the latest to withdraw.
On top of that, said Kieft, the regional treatment center in Anoka that remains open and provides treatment for people in the metro area who have acute mental health needs is often full.
That has left some rural counties scrambling for beds to treat people with intensive, out-of-control behaviors.
Kieft said private providers need adequate resources from the state in order to provide the beds and treatment today that had been available at regional treatment centers in the past.
"We used to have beds for them," Kieft said. "We don't have them anymore."
ADVERTISEMENT
Without the regional treatment centers, he said, "beds are missing for patients who need them."
In a resolution, members of the consortium said jails are "being utilized with greater frequency as the only option remaining to meet the challenging needs of intensive, out-of-control behaviors."
Because the state is the "safety net" for severely and persistently mentally ill individuals, the consortium is asking the Department of Human Services to "begin the process to develop the necessary services in our area of the state to meet the in-patient needs of severely and persistently mentally ill individuals."
The Kandiyohi County Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed Tuesday to approve the consortium's resolution calling for that action.
Patrice Vick, communications director for the Department of Human Services, said on Wednesday that officials there wanted to review the resolution before commenting on the concerns of the consortium.
-0-
