Recommendations for Mental Health Facilities Closing Could Have Major Impact

North Mississippi State Hospital in Tupelo is one of those the Governor has recommended closing.

Governor Barbour is proposing the closure of a number of mental health hospitals and crisis centers across the state as part of his budget recommendations. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on what consequences those closures might have.

Governor Barbour says closing four mental health facilities, and all but one of the state's mental health crisis centers will save $28 million dollars over the next two years. The governor would like to see a shift to more home and community based case, but officials fear that will mean that many patients in need of mental health treatment will now have to travel much farther to find it. Winona Winfield is the director of the South Mississippi State Hospital in Purvis, one of those facilities the governor is recommending closing. She says when the regional facilities opened more than ten years ago the state saw a dramatic decline in the number of mental health patients who had to wait for treatment,

“So if these beds are taken out of the system, potentially we see people who are in need of immediate service being held in jail without any service where they become more sick.”

In some cases where a patient has been committed to a state hospital but no bed is available, they are held in jails instead. The addition of regional hospitals and crisis centers scattered around the state has also allowed patients to remain closer to their communities and homes, which may not be an option anymore for those individuals requiring inpatient treatment. That’s terrible news says Larry Sweringen interim director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Mississippi,

“And I think all research and any treatment that I have ever read is the more that the family is involved, the more support they can give; the closer they are to do all those things the better your outcome.”

The facilities that the governor has recommended closing employ over 600 individuals. The Department of Mental Health has begun making plans in response to the governor’s request and say it is their goal to affect as few people as possible. But ultimately it will be up to the state legislators to decide how many facilities to close.