Lawmakers told of need for mental health funding

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005 | 11:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Nevada's spending on mental health is far below the national average, and that's why Gov. Kenny Guinn is recommending a 47.7 percent increase in the next two years, lawmakers were told this morning.

Carlos Brandenburg, administrator of the state Division of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, said today the Guinn budget for the coming two years is $282.6 million, an increase of $91.3 million over the present biennium spending.

He told the legislative budget committees that 65 people in hospital emergency rooms in Las Vegas this morning waited to be admitted to state mental health centers.

But there are only 131 beds for mental health patients and "every bed is full," Brandenburg said. He said the budget calls for raising that to 217 beds during the next two years.

A 150-bed hospital is scheduled to open in May 2006. The division is to grow by 449 employees, most of them in Clark County, to a total of 1,325.

Brandenburg told the committee that the law requires that a person be physically examined if he or she is a danger to himself or the community before they can be committed to a mental health facility.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, complained there is no short-term plan to put mental health patients in a triage or crisis center to relieve the overcrowding of emergency rooms. She indicated that the Legislature will work on a plan to divert these patients from emergency rooms until May 2006.

State Human Resources Director Mike Willden confirmed that Guinn's budget did not allocate money for a triage or crisis center. He said the increase in beds will solve the problem but not until May 2006.

Leslie said she could not understand why there were no funds recommended. She pointed out that the Guinn administration came twice to the Legislative Interim Finance Committee asking for money to put patients into WestCare, a triage center in Las Vegas, but the finance committee denied the request.

Brandenburg estimated that his division will handle 16,336 patients in Southern Nevada and it will grow to 17,722 next year and to 18,966 in fiscal 2007. The average patient stay in the present hospital in Clark County is 19 days, compared with 26 days in Northern Nevada.

Brandenburg said a 2003 study showed there are 31,696 Nevadans who are suffering from serious mental illness who are not being treated. He said 23,759 Nevadans were treated in 2003.

Figures from the National Research Institute showed Nevada spent $59 per capita in 2003 on mental health services compared with the national average of $89. That put 37 states ahead of Nevada in spending for mental health, according to the study.

Besides the current hospital, there are clinics in North Las Vegas, Henderson and eastern Las Vegas.

Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, complained that the state built a mental health facility in Sparks in 1991 but not in Las Vegas. She said there are empty beds now in the Sparks facility. And she wants to take a look at transferring some of Southern Nevada's patients to Sparks.