Big hike OK’d in mental health budget

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Senate Finance Committee on Monday approved spending $371.6 million on mental health programs over the next biennium, a nearly 40 percent increase over 2001.

Some of the increase would pay for faster diagnosis and treatment of people with mental problems who are filling the hospital emergency rooms in Clark County.

The budget also includes $613,447 for a seven-person mobile unit to visit Clark County emergency hospital rooms to help determine what type of treatment may be needed for those with mental problems.

These individuals are filling the beds of some Las Vegas Valley hospitals, forcing emergency cases with physical injuries to be diverted to other hospitals. The new crisis unit would determine if a patient should be admitted to a state mental health facility or treated with drugs and released.

The committee approved spending $3.3 million to expand the psychiatric observation unit at the Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Center from 10 to 26 beds and to restore staffing in the acute inpatient hospital to operate 77 beds. That would increase the current 88-bed patient capacity to 103 beds.

A new mental hospital is also on the drawing board for Las Vegas.

The committee also approved increased funding for more medication and a second psychiatric ambulatory service team in Las Vegas to treat people in the community, rather than confining them.

The budget approved by the committee also including an increase in the rates provided to community training centers and supported living arrangements for those who care for the mentally retarded in the community. They would receive an increase of 7 percent this coming January and an additional 8 percent in July 2004.

The committee also approved the governor's plan to eliminate 22 beds at the Desert Regional Center that cares for the mentally retarded in Clark County. The people occupying those beds would be placed in community residential centers to comply with a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that calls for transition of the developmental disabled to less restricted settings.

The budget also includes $1.8 million during the next two years to retrieve 14 mentally retarded people from out of state institutions. They would be placed in residential settings with job training.