Mike Hammond, executive director of the Association
of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas,
will be among the advocates meeting this week
with the governor's staff to discuss persistent problems
in the state's mental health system. State mental hospitals
have been repeatedly filled to capacity, prompting officials
last week to order a temporary suspension in
voluntary admissions. (Photo by Dave Ranney)
TOPEKA — The state’s hospitals for the mentally ill are admitting voluntary patients again.
“The delay on voluntary admissions was lifted late this morning,” Michelle Ponce, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, said Wednesday.
SRS suspended voluntary admissions May 19 after all three hospitals were over census and unable to discharge enough patients to keep pace with the influx.
Larned State Hospital lifted its suspension shortly after reopening an 11-bed unit.
With the reopened unit, the hospital now has a 90-bed capacity. On Wednesday, it had 86 patients.
Osawatomie State Hospital and Rainbow Mental Health Facility lifted their suspensions despite being five and two patients over their respective licensed capacities.
In an email to community mental health centers in the eastern third of the state, Greg Valentine, superintendent at Osawatomie and Rainbow, wrote: “While our census at both hospitals is slightly higher than capacity, we have enough discharges planned that we believe we can safely lift the delay on voluntary admissions so you can now begin referring voluntary admissions effective immediately.”
Rainbow and Osawatomie have capacity for 50 and 176 patients, respectively.
Persistent problem
The state mental hospitals have each been over capacity repeatedly in past months but last week's suspension on voluntary admissions was unusual and was ordered because all the hospitals were full at the same time
According to agency records, the Larned hospital has been over capacity more than not in past months and the other two hospitals have each been over capacity about a quarter of the time.
“We don’t really know what factors were involved in the recent spike in admissions,” Ponce said. “So I really can’t say how long this is going last – because there’s no way to know – but we’re certainly hoping that measures we’re taking will keep things at a manageable level.”
Ponce noted that in addition to SRS reopening the 11 beds at Larned, Via Christi Behavioral Health Center, Wichita, agreed to take some Wichita-area residents who had been referred to Osawatomie.
Advocates for the mentally ill welcomed the news but warned that the larger issue of community mental health centers not having access to enough inpatient beds remained unaddressed.
“Yeah, it’s good news, but it doesn’t fix anything,” said Mike Hammond, executive director at the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas. “All this does, really, is put a Band-Aid on the problem.”
Hammond attended a Kansas Mental Health Coalition meeting Wednesday, during which several advocacy groups approved a letter that was later delivered to Gov. Mark Parkinson’s office.
“We have finally reached the breaking point that we’ve been warning the state was going to come,” Hammond said.
Tight budgets
The spike in admissions, he said, was, in part, driven by recent cuts in state spending that caused mental health centers to lay off staff and limit access to services.
It didn’t help, Hammond said, that state hospital budgets were also cut.
Rick Shults, SRS director of mental health services, did not dispute Hammond’s assessment.
“We are all having to deal with limited resources,” he said.
Shults said SRS is looking for ways to expand access to inpatient beds in private hospitals like those at Via Christi Behavioral Health Center or in nursing homes that care for the mentally ill.
But he urged the mental health centers to find better ways for determining which patients need hospitalization and which can be kept in their community.
Lois Clendening, representing Via Christi Behavioral Health Center, said in Wichita it’s become commonplace for people to abuse drugs or alcohol, become suicidal and be taken to one of the city’s emergency rooms.
“These are people who’ve never been in a mental health center before,” Clendening said. “They show up, they’re acting suicidal but no one knows if it’s because they’re mentally ill or because they’re abusing – alcohol, usually.”
She said these people were often referred to one of the state hospitals because the emergency rooms and the mental health centers didn’t know what else to do with them.
A coalition of advocates for the mentally ill are scheduled to meet with members of the governor’s staff Wednesday afternoon to discuss the problem.