Mental health crisis center sought

Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 | 10:48 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The chairwoman of the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee said Sunday that immediate action is needed to solve the mental health crisis in Southern Nevada.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, is proposing that money be made available for a 40-bed crisis center in Clark County.

The center would provide care to mental patients for up to 72 hours when it is determined whether to place the individual in the present state facilities or in a community treatment program.

Leslie said she is planning to convene a joint hearing of the health care budget and policy committee in mid-February, the second week of the upcoming Legislature.

The groundbreaking for the construction of a 150-bed state mental health hospitalis is scheduled for Feb. 1, and Gov. Kenny Guinn is expected to announce today that he intends to pump additional money into the mental health budget but none of that will fill all the gaps in the system, Leslie said.

Leslie is proposing increasing the reimbursement rate to private hospitals from Medicaid from $460 a day to $600 in an attempt to get them to care for these patients. A number of hospitals in Las Vegas closed their mental health units because the reimbursement rate was too low, she said.

Leslie also intends to propose spending additional funds to allow WestCare to provide triage treatment for mental patients until the long-range solutions are in place.

Guinn last July provided money to WestCare for the efforts. But then the Legislative Interim Finance Committee provided enough money to open 28 new beds at the existing state mental health facilities.

Earlier this month, state Human Resources Director Mike Willden said there were 60-70 patients in hospital emergency rooms waiting to be transferred to the present hospital that has about 100 beds.

Leslie said, "improving our ability to treat mental health patients statewide must be a top priority, but we must be realistic that opening new hospitals take time." The new hospital is expected to be ready in the summer of 2006.

The funding of a triage center is a stopgap measure, said Leslie. She also is suggesting a triage center in Washoe County.

"We are hearing horror stories from Southern Nevada about 12-hour waits in emergency rooms," she said. "We absolutely cannot afford to wait for two years, until the new psychiatric hospital opens, to address this crisis."