Panel OKs mental health budget

Tuesday, May 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A budget that will allow expanded services for the mentally ill in Southern Nevada, including extra money for new and safer drugs, was approved today by a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee.

The subcommittee agreed to spend more than $600,000 to start a new program to treat the severely mentally ill in the community, rather than having them sent to the adult center for inpatient treatment.

It's a pilot program called Program for Assertive Community Treatment and an estimated 72 patients could be treated a year. Dr. Carlos Brandenburg, director of the state Division of Mental Hygiene and Mental Retardation, said it would start in January 1998.

Assemblywoman Jan Evans, D-Sparks, chairwoman of the subcommittee, said this program is better and less costly than filling the beds at the treatment center. This is over and above the money recommended in Gov. Bob Miller's budget.

The subcommittee approved increasing the beds at Southern Nevada Mental Health Services on West Charleston Boulevard from 79 to 86. Eleven workers will be added.

In addition, the governor recommended and the subcommittee agreed to put an extra $3.4 million into buying more and better drugs to treat the mentally ill in Clark County.

State Budget Director Perry Comeaux said $674,000 of the total is to pay for drugs for an expanded patient load and $2.8 million is the cost of the new drugs that are said to be more effective and less dangerous. Comeaux said it's harder to overdose on these new drugs.

The division also will start a new program, giving drugs out at the center and satellite offices, rather than having patients go to Albertson's supermarkets. A contract with Albertson's will be canceled and pharmacies will now be opened in North Las Vegas and Henderson in addition to the current ones in Las Vegas for patients to get their prescriptions.

"We're putting the prescriptions out to where the clients are," Brandenburg said.

Brandenburg said this is cheaper since the state buys through a consortium of 25 states. "The client would pay twice as much if they bought them on their own," he said.

The subcommittee also agreed to put $89,000 in the budget to take care of periods when there is an unexpected increase in patients. Brandenburg said during the early spring and summer, there's a rise in the number of people who need treatment.

This extra money, he said, would give the division the ability to contract for beds at other facilities to handle the overload.

Also included in the budget is an extra $75,000 to get ready for an inspection in 1989 by the Joint Commission on Accreditation to certify the hospital. Brandenburg said the hospital cleared the federal Health Financing and Cost Administration inspection. But the joint commission's review is "three steps above" the federal inspection.

Miller initially proposed raising the budget for the agency in Southern Nevada from $15.5 million in this year to $18.4 million next year and $18.8 million the following year. But the subcommittee's action will pump more money into the spending program. Final figures must still be worked out.