There is a belief in Manhattan that there needs to be an effort to address the lack of available mental health treatment facilities. There is sentiment for this to potentially become a regional issue, involving Geary, Riley, and Pottawatomie and possibly more counties.
A reduction in state funding, and available beds at the Osawatomie State Hospital has left it up to counties to fend for themselves in many cases, with some patients needing mental health treatment winding up in jails because there is no other bed space for them.
The consensus at a joint meeting in Manhattan attended by city, Riley and Pottawatomie county, Via Christi, and law enforcement, called for the Riley County Mental Health Task Force to go to work on this issue. Pawnee Mental Health Executive Director Robbin Cole volunteered to provide the leadership. That agency serves a 10-county area.
“There does seem to be a consensus of will that the Riley County Mental Health Task Force needs to extend beyond Riley County, and particularly into Pottawatomie and Geary County, and maybe even beyond. So the Riley County Mental Health Task Force may be due for a name change.”
Cole noted inpatient services are needed, but perhaps beyond that, some sort of crisis stabilization facility. “Something that isn’t necessarily staffed 24-hours by nurses, that isn’t necessarily staffed heavily by doctors or advanced registered nurse practitioners, but something that is staffed by mental health technicians who work under the direction of psychiatrists, who work in collaboration with advanced practiced registered nurses who are helping patients stabilize, helping manage them, making sure they are taking the medications they need to take.”
Wynn Butler, Manhattan City Commissioner, expressed his ideas, saying that there are many mental health facilities that do different things, but inpatient care is missing. “But what we have to do is partner with the hospital, and a government – private partner combination, regional that we’ve go three-four counties involved to drive the cost down. We’ve got to pool the resources and fill that hole.” Butler added, And I think it exists both in Riley County, and in Geary County, and Pottawatome County, and this is a good event for regionalism, and partnership of government and private enterprise.”
Butler feels the hospital would have to take the lead with an inpatient medical facility, and their administrators will know what the cost is to undertake that process. “Now the problem is they can’t run it at a loss. So the way I see it is the medical system is going to get some amount of funds from insurance and the government, and then there’s going to be a deficit. Well that deficit has to be picked up by the local government agencies.” Butler added that would be a “combination of the City of Manhattan and various counties.” He noted if the hole isn’t plugged it will cost more because patients will end up in jail and there will be other problems.
The Riley County Mental Health Task Force will define what is needed, and do related research. They will report back at some future point on necessary steps that need to be taken and cost estimates. There was strong support for making this a regional issue since other counties are dealing with the problem. Geary and Pottawatomie were two counties that were specifically mentioned, but it could include more.