[T]he Scott administration proposed a temporary mental health facility earlier this year that would require $2.9 million to build and $1.5 million to operate. It looks like it will get neither, according to leaders of the House committees drafting next year’s budgets.
In January, the Department of Mental Health announced a proposal for a temporary “forensic” 12-bed facility which would house those who have entered the treatment system via the courts.
The unit would be located at the Northwest Regional Correctional Facility in Swanton and would eventually be replaced by a larger structure with more beds. The department said it could ease demands on Vermont’s emergency rooms and psychiatric facilities.
But it’s unlikely it would be up and running in fiscal year 2019, and House leaders say they are looking for other programs to address the problem.
Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield and chair of the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions, said her committee is still finishing up its budget, but at this point doesn’t support the idea of constructing the facility.
“Why do we want to spend $2.9 million on something that’s temporary, that’s built within a correctional facility?” she said Wednesday.
Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg and chair of the House Committee on Health Care, said in a memo that his committee doesn’t support the plans to immediately develop the temporary facility either.
He noted that even if development began soon, it’s likely that the temporary facility would accept patients before 2020.
“The Committee does, however, recognize the need for immediate action to respond to the current inpatient capacity shortage, and recommends that DMH identify an alternative plan for temporary expanded capacity at an existing inpatient facility,” he wrote.
Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, the Health Committee vice chair, said the state should be developing its existing mental health staff instead of creating a new facility that would require new staff.
“We’re not able to recruit enough staff for our hospital in Berlin and we should be putting the focus on developing the expertise among those already highly qualified staff rather than trying to come up with a whole new group,” she said.
Rep. Mary Hooper, D-Montpelier, who sits on the House Committee on Appropriations, said although her committee doesn’t plan on approving the $1.5 million to run the temporary facility, it is considering other proposals that would help emergency rooms stretched by the demand for mental health services.
The committee is examining a $400,000 “street outreach” program originally proposed by Scott’s administration. This program would help hire mental health responders to work in selected communities and intervene before patients end up in hospitals, or in police custody.
The House Committee on Health Care backs this proposal and has also recommended a $500,000 plan to increase supportive housing for people suffering with mental health issues, Donahue said.
“That means not just helping people get apartments, not just housing subsidies, but also the staffing around it to provide the kind of support so they’re able to stay in the housing,” she said.
The House Committee on Appropriations will decide whether to move forward with these proposals this week.