Here's an update from the Austin American-Statesman on efforts aimed at increasing funding for mental health services in Austin/Travis County ("Spending on mental illness sees a sudden boost," July 5, 2008):
"... Across Austin and in other parts of Texas, foundations and government organizations are giving more money to programs that help people with mental illnesses — an area that advocates say has long been underfunded in Texas.
The Travis County Healthcare District recently budgeted $3.2 million to pay for more in-patient care at local psychiatric hospitals, up from $1.9 million in 2007. St. David's Community Health Foundation last month awarded $2.3 million in grants to local nonprofit groups working on mental health issues, up from $1.3 million the year before.
In May, the Department of State Health Services handed out $25 million in new money to 17 local mental health centers, including more than $4.6 million for crisis care in Austin. The funding is part of $82 million the Legislature approved in 2007 to stem the tide of people with mental illness flooding emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals and jails.
That state-sanctioned financial support was widely seen as a victory in Texas, which is ranked 47th in the country for its per capita spending on people with mental illnesses. It's unclear whether the extra spending will continue, though.
'It's hard to tell whether or not it's a turning point, but a lot of eyes are on this,' said Mike Maples, director of mental health and substance abuse programs for the Department of State Health Services.
Mental health advocates have long tried to push psychiatric issues into the spotlight. Those efforts have received a boost from media coverage of mental health problems facing Iraq war veterans. State and national lawmakers are debating ways to improve mental health care for veterans. And this week, the U.S. House passed a bill requiring group health plans to provide the same level of coverage for mental illnesses that is given to other health problems.
On the state and local level, crisis appears to be a driving force in the new spending.
Last fall, in an effort to stay within its state-allocated budget, the Austin-Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center cut the number of patients it sent to Austin State Hospital. At that time, the center usually housed 100 to 110 patients at the hospital at any given time. Since then, the number has fluctuated: at one point in January, 56 Travis County patients were in the state hospital; this week there were 75.
With private mental health hospitals often full and unable to fill the void, dozens of suicidal, manic or violent people — insured and uninsured — have been diverted to area emergency rooms, where they might wait hours or even days to be sent to a local psychiatric hospital.
Local hospitals have responded by devoting more resources on the crisis patients.
The Seton Family of Hospitals, for example, added 16 beds at Seton Shoal Creek psychiatric hospital. It also set aside six beds at the University Medical Center at Brackenridge emergency room for people with mental and physical health problems — a move that cost about $460,000 during the fiscal year that ended July 1. Seton also said it would double its $3 million a year psychiatric residency program, adding four more residents to the program.
'You can't deal with community health problems if you're not also taking care of mental health issues,' said Greg Hartman, senior vice president of University Medical Center at Brackenridge. 'There's too much of a connection.'
The hospital bed shortage also spurred officials with the Travis County Healthcare District to increase mental health funding.
'I think (the bed shortage) was the catalyst for saying to ourselves, We've got to do something,' said Patricia Young Brown, president of the healthcare district. 'There has to be a better way.'
The district increased its contribution to the local mental health effort by agreeing to finance inpatient care over the next year that could help 368 to 728 additional indigent patients, depending on their length of stay in the hospital. Officials said they plan to continue that level of financing indefinitely.
Although the St. David's foundation also provided funding for in-patient psychiatric beds, most of its recent grants support local nonprofits. Waterloo Counseling, for example, will receive $112,000 for mental health employees, including counselors. Any Baby Can was given $149,00 to provide in-home counseling to 85 additional clients each year.
'It was really clear there was a lot of need, a big gap in mental health services," he foundation's president Dick Moeller said. ...'"
Read the full article.
**
More information about the $25 million in grants awarded by the TX Department of State Health Services is available here.
Showing posts with label bed shortage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bed shortage. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Caring for Mentally Ill in Jails, Emergency Rooms
The Austin-American Statesman (February 3, 2008) reports that since November, at least 125 depressed, suicidal, or violent people have been sent to emergency rooms in Austin, rather than the state hospital:
"Previously, most of those people would have gone to the state hospital, said Dr. Jim Van Norman, medical director for the Austin Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center.
Now, some spend up to 14 days in emergency rooms waiting for a bed in a psychiatric facility. Others are treated and released from emergency rooms without any mental health care."
Late last year, for financial reasons, Austin mental health officials drastically cut the number of patients they send to the Austin State Hospital, a public facility for people with mental illness.
The Statesman chronicles the case of Daniel Whitehead, a man who has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and who spent months in jail waiting to be sent to a psychiatric hospital. His case starkly illustrates the vicious cycle of incarceration and hospitalization in which many people with mental illness now find themselves:
"On Sept. 30, the 32-year-old Austin man — who said he was using crack, was not taking his psychiatric drugs and thought federal agents were out to get him — was arrested and jailed, accused of forging a $231 check at a sporting goods store to buy socks, sunglasses and a jacket.
He couldn't afford to pay the $10,000 bail, said Whitehead's wife, Lisa Valentine. And by the time Whitehead had a psychiatric evaluation a month later, his mental health had deteriorated so severely that he was unable to assist in his defense, said Amber Vazquez Bode, Whitehead's lawyer.
Whitehead was deemed incompetent to stand trial, and a judge ordered him sent to a psychiatric hospital. But because of a backlog of more than 40 inmates awaiting similar transfers, Whitehead spent more than three months in the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle.
He is now at the Austin State Hospital."
Austin does not have a medical hospital with a psychiatric emergency room:
"Doctors, medical professionals and mental health advocates have had multiple meetings about the problem, but no solution has emerged. Some people want to see psychiatric hubs staffed with mental health professionals established in three local hospitals. Some want the state to give the MHMR center more psychiatrc beds. Others think a stand-alone emergency psychiatric hospital for the uninsured is the best solution.
For now, the MHMR center is applying for a $6 million state grant that would fund mobile mental health teams to work at several local emergency rooms. But whether the agency will get that money remains unclear."
Read the full article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/03/0203mental.html
"Previously, most of those people would have gone to the state hospital, said Dr. Jim Van Norman, medical director for the Austin Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center.
Now, some spend up to 14 days in emergency rooms waiting for a bed in a psychiatric facility. Others are treated and released from emergency rooms without any mental health care."
Late last year, for financial reasons, Austin mental health officials drastically cut the number of patients they send to the Austin State Hospital, a public facility for people with mental illness.
The Statesman chronicles the case of Daniel Whitehead, a man who has bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and who spent months in jail waiting to be sent to a psychiatric hospital. His case starkly illustrates the vicious cycle of incarceration and hospitalization in which many people with mental illness now find themselves:
"On Sept. 30, the 32-year-old Austin man — who said he was using crack, was not taking his psychiatric drugs and thought federal agents were out to get him — was arrested and jailed, accused of forging a $231 check at a sporting goods store to buy socks, sunglasses and a jacket.
He couldn't afford to pay the $10,000 bail, said Whitehead's wife, Lisa Valentine. And by the time Whitehead had a psychiatric evaluation a month later, his mental health had deteriorated so severely that he was unable to assist in his defense, said Amber Vazquez Bode, Whitehead's lawyer.
Whitehead was deemed incompetent to stand trial, and a judge ordered him sent to a psychiatric hospital. But because of a backlog of more than 40 inmates awaiting similar transfers, Whitehead spent more than three months in the Travis County Correctional Complex in Del Valle.
He is now at the Austin State Hospital."
Austin does not have a medical hospital with a psychiatric emergency room:
"Doctors, medical professionals and mental health advocates have had multiple meetings about the problem, but no solution has emerged. Some people want to see psychiatric hubs staffed with mental health professionals established in three local hospitals. Some want the state to give the MHMR center more psychiatrc beds. Others think a stand-alone emergency psychiatric hospital for the uninsured is the best solution.
For now, the MHMR center is applying for a $6 million state grant that would fund mobile mental health teams to work at several local emergency rooms. But whether the agency will get that money remains unclear."
Read the full article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/03/0203mental.html
Monday, December 10, 2007
A Dangerous Wait for Treatment
Here are some excerpts from an article that appeared on December 9, 2007 in the Austin-American Statesman, "After policy change, ERs seeing more mentally ill patients":
"It's been one month since Austin's mental health authority slashed the number of patients it sends to the Austin State Hospital.
Since then, nearly 30 people with mental health crises have been routed to local emergency rooms, which don't have adequate expertise or facilities to deal with psychiatric patients. The number of Travis County prisoners with mental illness waiting to be transferred to a state hospital has jumped from 30 to 43. And local health officials don't know when relief will come." ...
"The mental health center runs the county's public mental health system. The quasi-nonprofit, which operates on government and private dollars, provides psychiatric care for low-income, uninsured and indigent people. It also sends people to state-run psychiatric hospitals.
How many people can go to those hospitals, and how long they can stay, is largely ruled by money.
The Texas Department of State Health Services gives the center $8.4 million a year to spend on psychiatric hospitalizations. That generally translates to 63 people per day.
But for years, because Austin has a shortage of psychiatric hospital beds, the center routinely housed up to 110 patients in Austin State Hospital at any given time. Now, the state is telling the center to stop exceeding its quota or pay the state millions of dollars for the care of those extra patients.
That makes emergency rooms the new safety net for many mentally ill people." ...
"Meanwhile, a number of people in the Travis County Correction Complex deemed incompetent to stand trial are now waiting months to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Some have been waiting to be moved since September, said Sgt. Kitty Hicks of the Travis County sheriff's office."
Read the full article.
"It's been one month since Austin's mental health authority slashed the number of patients it sends to the Austin State Hospital.
Since then, nearly 30 people with mental health crises have been routed to local emergency rooms, which don't have adequate expertise or facilities to deal with psychiatric patients. The number of Travis County prisoners with mental illness waiting to be transferred to a state hospital has jumped from 30 to 43. And local health officials don't know when relief will come." ...
"The mental health center runs the county's public mental health system. The quasi-nonprofit, which operates on government and private dollars, provides psychiatric care for low-income, uninsured and indigent people. It also sends people to state-run psychiatric hospitals.
How many people can go to those hospitals, and how long they can stay, is largely ruled by money.
The Texas Department of State Health Services gives the center $8.4 million a year to spend on psychiatric hospitalizations. That generally translates to 63 people per day.
But for years, because Austin has a shortage of psychiatric hospital beds, the center routinely housed up to 110 patients in Austin State Hospital at any given time. Now, the state is telling the center to stop exceeding its quota or pay the state millions of dollars for the care of those extra patients.
That makes emergency rooms the new safety net for many mentally ill people." ...
"Meanwhile, a number of people in the Travis County Correction Complex deemed incompetent to stand trial are now waiting months to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Some have been waiting to be moved since September, said Sgt. Kitty Hicks of the Travis County sheriff's office."
Read the full article.
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