New center offers ‘kind patient care’
In Nashville, Tenn., a new mental illness crisis treatment center is open. The center offers a 24/7 option for those with mental health issues who have run afoul of the law. Instead of incarceration, they can receive treatment, the Tennessean reported.
Estimates are that more than 1 million residents of Tennessee aged 18 years and older have a mental health or substance use disorder. About 25% of those residents having a serious mental health illness.
The new facility includes a crisis walk-in center and a unit where those in the throes of a mental health crisis can seek care. A goal is to get people suffering from an urgent mental illness crisis connected to help faster, especially when they come into contact with police.
“It’s very important to come to a place that’s going to get you help,” Bonnie Kelly said in the article. Ms. Kelly, who reportedly has bipolar disorder, has been arrested several times for disorderly conduct tied to her condition. “It means everything. It is good, kind patient care, rather than just getting you out of the way.”
Aside from benefiting those in need of mental health care, the center will ease the strain on Nashville police, who currently spend more than 5,000 hours each year responding to mental health–related calls. The officers must remain with the person until transfer to a jail or mental health facility is done.
“As a city, we are recognizing that there is a need, and we are investing in that,” East Precinct Commander David Imhof said in the article. “We are helping a population that has had no voice in the past.” Right now, fewer than 60% of patients discharged from state mental health facilities receive any sort of coverage. The result can be cycles of release, arrest, and incarceration.
Agency aims to protect patients
The Oregon Health Authority has stepped in to prevent numerous state-funded mental health facilities run by the same contractor from booting out patients with severe mental health problems.
The contractor is Kepro, a Pennsylvania-based company. Since December, the health authority has reversed decisions to release 17 patients, according to an article in the Oregonian. The harder line follows revelations by the newspaper of serious harm to patients who had been released before they were capable of caring for themselves.
Kepro was hired by the health authority and paid $27 million to evaluate the medical needs of mental health patients in Oregon. As part of the evaluation, 215 of 250 patients were deemed unqualified to remain in care.
One was Ruane Oliverio, who has schizophrenia, who was kicked out of a locked facility in Portland last June. Clinicians had warned against her release, insisting that her mental state remained too vulnerable. After being hospitalized multiple times, she was sent to the Oregon State Hospital, the highest and most expensive level of care. She was one of those targeted for release. This decision was reversed, and she continues to receive care.