The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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March 20, 2010

County hopes to save mental health crisis center

State plans to close facility

By Dan Linehan Free Press Staff Writer

MANKATO — County officials revealed a plan Friday to save part of a Mankato mental health clinic slated to be closed by the state in May.

The plan would cost $547,500, about 42 percent of the $1.3 million per year the state expects to save by closing the crisis center, a clinic designed to prevent more expensive hospitalizations.

The plan has the backing of State Sen. Kathy Sheran, a Mankato Democrat on the human services budget committee who has worked as a registered nurse and nursing educator.

She said Friday’s meeting was about local officials helping to find a solution, “not about everyone talking about what a problem this is, because that’s well established.”

The plan would salvage pieces of the crisis center, most importantly its overnight stays.

Dr. Michael Farnsworth, a psychiatrist who works part time for the county, said there’s a stigma attached to a hospital stay.

“This allowed them a safe entry when they need services,” he said of the crisis center, which opened in 2006.

Otherwise, the experts agreed, victims were likely to deteriorate to the point where they’d show up at a hospital emergency room.

This part of the plan would cost $280,000.

Other parts would save urgent care services — which are much like similar offerings for physical ailments — and a short-term stabilization service to help people get back on their feet again.

It’s not entirely clear whether the Legislature will intervene for this plan, which will essentially be a budget addition from the perspective of state administrators.

“You’re reducing cost savings by $547,000,” Sheran said. “That’s the dilemma they’ll be faced with.”

The closure of the crisis center was billed as part of a redesign of mental health by the state human services department, but Sheran said it’s clearly driven by “huge pressure” to reduce the budget.

The state had to cut about $17 million from this part of their budget, and most of it came from mental health services, said Steven Pratt, southern regional medical director of state operated services.

“We don’t want to do this. We have to do something,” he said.

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