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Lack of treatment resources creating 'mental health crisis'

Columbus Telegram (NE) - 9/4/2015

Sept. 04--COLUMBUS -- Platte County Sheriff Ed Wemhoff knew recruiting and hiring a mental health professional to offer part-time counseling services to county jail inmates would take some time -- he just didn't think it would be nine months.

"We searched for a long time before we located someone," said Wemhoff while noting that trying to attract mental health professionals to medium-sized rural communities such as Columbus is a difficult task.

"It took months to fill the counseling position," said Wemhoff, who spent his first few months as sheriff last summer learning about the community's mental health treatment issues and resources. "This is a hot topic ... everybody's talking about it."

A decade ago the state shifted responsibility for some mental health treatment from regional facilities to community-based services.

Treatment gaps have opened between options that used to be available at regional facilities and what's now accessible locally to people sitting in jail accused of crimes.

The state's idea for expanded community-based services hasn't materialized in Platte County, as some people have been caught in the void between care that is available locally and the need for longer-term, in-patient services.

A year ago, retiring Sheriff Jon Zavadil included $10,000 in his proposed 2014-15 budget to add a part-time counseling services position at the jail. The funds were intended to pay for a mental health counselor to visit the jail four hours a week to provide inmates with individual or group counseling services.

Wemhoff said the position was filled about three months ago. The newly hired counselor has spent the first few months learning the ropes of the job at the jail.

"We'll know more in a year," said Wemhoff, adding that county officials have learned a lot in recent years about the growing problems with mental health treatment in the community. "Our local mental health professionals are swamped."

Wemhoff said next year at this time will give a clearer picture on whether the new counseling services improve conditions for inmates at the jail.

Catholic Charities and the Rainbow Center are two of the primary private players in locally based out- and in-patient treatment. The Rainbow Center is currently restructuring its services due to financial struggles.

East Central District Health Department maintains a staff of five mental health professionals, offering out-patient therapy. The department provides no residential services.

"It's not just Columbus (with a shortage of mental health professionals)," said Rebecca Rayman, executive director of the health department. "There is a mental health crisis all across Nebraska."

The number of emergency protective custody cases handled by law enforcement officers, the county attorney's office and jail has been on a decade-long upswing.

The county attorney's office reported 66 EPC cases in 2005. That figure rose to 85 in 2006, 86 in 2007 and 90 in 2008. After dipping to 87 in 2009, the annual number rose to 109 in 2010, 107 in 2011, 94 in 2012 and 101 in 2013.

The EPC cases climbed to 109 in 2014 and were on pace to equal that number this year at the end of July.

Locally, when inmates are EPC'd and deemed a danger to themselves or others they are transferred to Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk. After a few days, the inmate is most often determined to be safe for confinement and returned to jail.

The cycle then repeats, sometimes two or three times. Revolving-door trips between Columbus and Norfolk create resource issues for law enforcement agencies, sapping officers' time patrolling local streets.

Officials say an officer can be out of action locally for 10 to 12 hours going through the hoops of getting a patient admitted to the Norfolk hospital.

"We spend an extreme amount of time on EPCs. We're tying up deputies for hours on end ... nobody will take them," Wemhoff said. "We don't have the community-based resources here."

After being in and out of the Norfolk hospital multiple times, the county normally transfers the inmate to the Department of Corrections' detention and evaluation center in Lincoln for more limited longer-term stays. The price tag at that center is $250 a day for the county.

Overall, the state of local mental health treatment is declining because of a lack of resources, said Elizabeth Lay, deputy county attorney with the Platte County Attorney's Office. When it takes nine months to find a counselor, there is a real problem, she said.

A general lack of community services to deal with violent, combative or mentally ill people is an issue that needs the attention of state lawmakers, the public and community, Lay said.

County officials said the detention and evaluation center provides no mental health services while local inmates are there, but it is safer than jail in terms of custodial attention.

For longer-term stays involving mental health treatment, inmates wait for a bed to open up at the Lincoln Regional Center.

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(c)2015 the Columbus Telegram (Columbus, Neb.)

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