I am sending this news release to all possible news providers as we need to keep the commu-nity notified of the work we are doing to assist as the mental health emer-gency services changes. I am confident you are the way to the people. Please get this in print as soon as possible as I will be send-ing another release next week with all the updates as a result of this week’s work. I am only here for a short time so things are moving quickly but in the right direction to serve our community with it’s mental health needs. Feel free to call me if you have questions as well.
I am really pleased with how the community providers and major stakeholders have stepped up to solve the problems caused by the closing of Western Mon-tana Mental Health Cen-ter.
I can also refer you to the Health Department who put together the minutes from the meeting with the National Council for Behavioral Health but we have had several meet-ings (at least four) to in-clude the whole county. Eureka’s meeting this last week had almost 60 peo-ple in attendance and we meet again this week (Tuesday) to do breakout working sessions. This emergency mental health services situation is very complicated. I have met with Cabinet Peaks Family Medicine and Northwest Community Health Center to discuss the continua-tion of care for the clients needing medication. Some of the Western clients have been scheduled for appointments at Western Montana Mental Health twice in January, the 10th and the 31st but it is un-known who actually showed up for these ap-pointments, who is receiv-ing services, what hap-pens now, and who is fall-ing through the cracks is all unknown. Many of these clients had case management in the past and relied on that service to remind them of the ap-pointments, transfer some and be present with the provider during the ap-pointments. There is no longer that link to ser-vices. I don’t know how many people are able to enter new services as the existing providers are doing the best they can to absorb the over 200 cli-ents displaced by the clos-ing of WMMHC. Over 130 had medication and/or case management services and 130 people is a large number to follow. Please know the numbers dis-cussed above are not ex-act as I have no lists. This is approximately how many clients were in ser-vices when WMMHC closed January 2, 2018. I have attempted to get names from WMMHC and assist with continuation of care but they declined our services.
The other service no longer available to the county is responding to emergency mental health calls in the jail and the hospital. WMMHC had the contract to provide these services for many years and when they closed they left nothing in place for crisis or Involuntary com-mitments except the op-tion to send people to Ka-lispell. Thankfully com-mitments are only ex-treme circumstances, ap-proximately 10 a year, but still a very necessary ser-vice which needs to be reinvented. This service requires a specific certifi-cation by the state, a Com-munity Mental Health Pro-fessionals. (CMHP) is needed to assist in this District Court legal pro-cess. Lincoln County has four individuals CMHP’s certified by the state. However, there is no pro-cess to respond to any emergency at this point, requiring a whole new creation of services. I am here to respond to emer-gencies at the hospital and jail as we attempt to cre-ate an emergency plan that is sustainable for Lin-coln County. This is a huge challenge and requires local providers to be part of a “Behavioral Health Network. (BHN)” This is our goal to provide an incentive to get a commit-ted group of names availa-ble to respond to certain emergency calls and an-other group to respond to more severe involuntary calls and be Community Mental Health Profession-als. (CMHP) With all the new clients entering ser-vices at a local level, pro-viders are pretty busy as it is without responding to emergencies. It is hoped each provider will handle their own clients during an emergency but there are several people who used to go to the emer-gency room who don’t have a provider and this is what we need the net-work to handle. I am scheduling several oppor-tunities to get local pro-viders together and hope-fully get some who will commit to be part of a new Behavioral Health Network. This would in-clude open office hours during the week to divert emergencies from the emergency room and di-rectly into mental health services. This is a time when we all need to work together to serve Lincoln County. The system we had before wasn’t perfect but it worked. This is an opportunity to create an emergency plan that works for our area. I am hopeful with the amount of people turning out to meetings, together we will divert a larger crisis.
Thank you for cover-ing this situation as it is difficult to keep everyone informed but necessary too.
Submitted byNancy K. Huus, LCSW, CMHP
Mental health crisis meeting
