Governor Kim Reynolds recently signed a bill increasing resources for mental health treatments.

Greene County Medical Center CEO Carl Behne says he was part of the “work group” the legislature worked with to come up with the multi-solution bill. However, Behne points out it’s only a step in the right direction towards better treatment options for mental health patients. Law enforcement often bring these individuals into the hospital’s emergency department, where they are seen by a physician. Jefferson Police Chief Mark Clouse describes what typically happens next.

“The problem that we run into more times than I even care to discuss is after that process takes place and it’s apparent that this person needs some type of assistance, they need some type of help, there are no open beds for that to happen. I’ve seen people wait three to four days for a bed to open up, so that they can go get the help that they need, and the beds just aren’t there.”   

Behne points out that sometimes the medical center becomes a temporary care facility, even after the determination process happens and an individual needs treatment.

“Unless we get a physician order or the judge orders that we release, we have to continue to care for that individual. We want to make sure that they’re not going to do any harm to themselves or to others. We rely heavily on our law enforcement friends to ensure the safety of our staff and that patient from themselves. It’s a partnership. We are able to handle some of the things here that they can’t do at the jail but in the inverse of that then instead of hanging out with them at the jail and having to watch them intently there, they get to do that here.”

Some of the parts to the new law include: increasing short-term crisis care facilities, accessing long-term care facilities, helping with transportation costs for law enforcement and giving the mental health decision-making abilities back to the physician and not to law enforcement.