Special meeting called to decide on funding for mental hospital

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 | 8:36 a.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- The state Board of Examiners has scheduled a special meeting for Friday to act on an emergency appropriation of $2 million to operate a temporary 30-bed psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas to care for the growing number of mentally ill who are crowding the emergency rooms of hospitals.

The state Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services says the $2 million would finance the cost of operating the temporary hospital on the campus of the Desert Regional Center from Aug. 1 until Feb. 14 next year when the Legislature will be in session.

The division will then ask the Legislature for $1.3 million to operate the temporary hospital through June 30, the end of the fiscal year.

The state has provided an extra $200,000 to WestCare Nevada to provide 30 psychiatric beds and staffing to help alleviate the overcrowding in the emergency rooms. But that money is nearly exhausted.

The request for the emergency $2 million would have to be approved by the Legislative Interim Finance Committee that doesn't meet until Sept. 15. No special meeting has been scheduled for this committee so far.

Clark County has declared a state of emergency fearing that local hospitals would lose their ability to handle a surge of patients with non-mental emergencies.

The state has already dipped into another emergency fund for $203,370 to start rehabilitating the center that would be turned into a temporary hospital.

It is on the campus of the Southern Nevada Mental Health System and has been used for meetings and training.

Carlos Brandenburg, director of the division, said he and Gov. Kenny Guinn knew this problem was coming but they didn't think it would explode as soon as it did. "It happened a lot sooner than we thought," Brandenburg said.

The Legislature, at the recommendation of Guinn, allocated $50 million more or a 32 percent increase to mental health in 2003. And construction is expected to start early next year on a new mental health hospital on the same campus.

Guinn is chairman of the examiners board.