The movement has begun in Riley County to begin studying how to address the problem of not enough beds, or lack of a facility to treat the mentally ill.  Some people are having to be housed in jails. It is a challenge faced by other counties as well.

During a joint city – county meeting in Manhattan on Thursday,there was a consensus to begin addressing this issue.The Riley County Mental Health Task Force will begin to look at this issue and bring back recommendations to the elected officials at a future point. Robbin Cole, Executive Director of Pawnee Mental Health Services, hasvolunteered to provide the leadership on this issue.

During the meeting on Thursday there was some sentiment for possibly making this a regional collaboration. JC Post contacted Florence Whitebread, a member of the Geary County Commission, for her reaction and thoughts on the subject. “Yes I would be interested in learning about it. It’s going to be extremely expensive however you look at it.”

Whitebread serves on the board for the regional juvenile detention center. “When we have the medicine that they take… in fact I signed a voucher the other day, one prescription was $819. That was just one fill. So regardless of whether it’s the medication or the doctoring it’s going to be really expensive, so it’s got to be a collaboration somehow. But I don’t know where you go on it. And I know it’s going to take some deep study by Robbin and her group over there.”

Cole expects the process to take several months to gather all the necessary information and make recommendations.