Friday, December 15, 2006
Brown County Mental Health Center saga takes another strange turn
As if the story can't get any stranger, we get this in the Press-Gazette:
Brown County faces a state penalty for sending home a 92-year-old patient of the mental health center in a taxicab this summer, even though he needed more treatment, according to a state complaint.
An ambulance took the man to the center's psychiatric hospital Aug. 28 because he was combative, violent and confused. He was sent back to his privately run community home the next day.
A staff psychiatrist told state investigators the county had no choice but to discharge the patient. The psychiatrist, who was not named in the complaint, implied that Brown County's admissions policy was at fault, as directed by county Executive Carol Kelso and Director of Human Services Beth Manning. The psychiatrist indicated the county's nursing home would have been an option for the patient, but "we are not admitting new patients into the nursing home unit of this facility, per directive of administration."
The state Department of Health and Family Services verified the details of the incident and noted federal and state deficiencies in quality of care and treatment. According to the state's official complaint summary, the patient was unsteady, confused and violent just hours before he was sent home.
News of the pending citation landed in the midst of debate over the future of the mental health center. Kelso has directed her staff to follow a plan for downsizing the number of beds at the center's nursing home from 72 to 40 by August 2007. The County Board has voted against the downsizing plan repeatedly.
And of course, this just comes days after resident asshole Guy Zima likened the decisonmaking at the center to Nazi Germany.
Now, the liberal county board will use this in justifying a major, state-of-the-art Brown Co. only mental health center. They will say this shows the need for a new center and the tax dollars to support one.
The real solution to the mess is a regional mental health center, one in which many counties in Northeastern Wisconsin contribues financially to support. Brown County is not the only county that needs to support a mental health center. I would imagine that Door, Kewaunee, Outagamie and others in the area are pondering what to do with their mentally ill.
As the area gets older, and life expectancies get longer, the need for a mental health center is there, but do we need one in every county in Northeastern Wisconsin? I don't think so. It's time for a regional comprehensive plan.
Labels: Brown County
