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Closing MAC, the Brookhaven CIC and eight other mental health facilities will save the state $18 million next year, Barbour said in his recommendations. Cutting the $4.9 million per year MAC and $1.9 million per year CIC, however, would cost 120 Southwest Mississippians their jobs.
Whether or not DMH develops contingency plans for the 10 facilities listed by Barbour or offers an alternative is unclear. Department spokeswoman Wendy Bailey said no specific information would be available until the board meets at the Specialized Treatment Facility in Gulfport at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
Perkins, however, believes the board should review all its facilities and prioritize them to meet the governor's savings request in an alternative proposal.
The board member from Brookhaven said closing the department's nursing homes at Whitfield and East Mississippi State Hospital would save $35 million in direct cost - almost twice the governor's $18 million savings estimate. Furthermore, operating nursing homes is beyond DMH's mission, he said.
MAC is also on the fringes of that mission, Perkins said. He said the teenage patients at MAC, who have run into legal trouble in their lives, would be better managed by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He said the top priority for DMH should be treating the criminally insane, while the most expendable service the department offers would be the nursing homes.
MAC is somewhere in between, Perkins said.
Brookhaven's crisis center is high on Perkins' priority list, however. Although acknowledging problems in the operation of crisis centers statewide, he said the facilities, when operated as intended, are sorely needed. The centers were built as holding points for patients committed to the state hospital to keep them from being housed in county jails until rooms become available.
"I think the crisis centers have an essential function in caring for the most helpless people we have in our society, the mentally ill," Perkins said.
The only crisis intervention center spared in Barbour's recommendations was the Grenada CIC, which is currently being operated by Community Mental Health Centers Region Six in a pilot program. DMH's response to the governor's recommendations states the department will "pursue other means to operation the additional six Crisis Intervention Center(s)."
District 92 Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, who sits on a legislative task force currently reviewing DMH's operations, said she would "love to see" the department contract with CMHC Region 11 to run the local crisis center.
"They never functioned correctly, ever," she said. "They were made to keep patients out of jail, and we didn't do anything to open the pathway to get them there - they've been functioning as mini state hospitals. We have to go back and change the commitment laws or this entire thing will never work."
CMHC Region 11 Executive Director Dr. Steve Ellis said his region would "certainly be interested" to discuss such a program in Brookhaven with DMH. He said the Region Six pilot program has seen DMH support operations at the Grenada CIC to see if the center can be operated at less expense.
"If we were able to make an agreement, we would certainly be able to consult with Region Six about what they had done and it would probably make it a little less difficult for us to call on their experience," Ellis said said.
In his budget recommendations, Barbour supported increased involvement in mental health treatment by CMHC.
