Mississippi Mental Health
I want to bring awareness to the lack of mental health institutions on the Mississippi Gulf Coast where I was born and raised, and plan to raise my family. Mental health care community institutions are either closing or shrinking staff when we have not even fulfilled the need to begin with in our communities. I have personal experiences with family members who have suffered due to the lack of mental health institutions being available to them in an adequate amount of time. I have heard many sad stories from other locals who can relate to mine also. The need is so critical that it is considered unlawful by the United States Department of Justice. Court orders have been placed, but as of right now the mentally ill are continuing to struggle on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Many mental health facilities on the Mississippi Gulf Coast are closing due to lack of funding and shortage of mental health care workers.
Gulf Coast Mental Health announced in August 2019 that it would be closing its doors. Anita Lee, from WLOX news, reported that they were closing due to lack of funding. They served 4 counties even though they were funded by federal grants, state of MS, the counties, Medicaid reimbursements, and many other ways. The previous director left in April 2019. This is leaving the gulf coast in dire need for mental health services in our communities and will overload our emergency rooms. The emergency rooms will most likely not have electronic records from the mental health facilities that are closing to have an adequate patient history either.
This is an epidemic to not only the Gulf Coast, but to whole the state of Mississippi. Mississippi. Along with many other southeastern states, Mississippi is one of the lowest ranked states for access to mental health care. According to Mental Health America’s charts, Mississippi is ranked 48th out of 51 states. Mississippi is ranked even worse for children with private insurance who do not cover mental or emotional illnesses. This state is ranked low for every category they break down into a chart.
Judge Carlton Reeves deemed Mississippi’s lack of adequate mental health care unlawful but did not have a full proof solution. In his NY Times article, Mihir Zaveri wrote that Judge Reeves said Mississippi violated federal civil rights law. I said to myself, “What does civil rights law have to do with mental health patients?” It was considered segregated having to separate the patients in the hospitals ran by the state. Zaveri wrote that Reeves believes that this will not stop until every mentally ill person has access to community based mental health services to reduce hospitalization. Reducing hospitalization will save the state money, so why wouldn’t the state go ahead and invest now? They say it is just not feasible to fund more money towards it.
As a Surgical Technologist, I was pulled from the surgery department to the ER department sit, watch, and record per 15 min up to three mental health patients at a time. I typically would watch two with the doors open and one in the hallway on a stretcher. This hospital ended up opening a unit of 4 rooms with monitors for each one. They also had nurses designated to them at this point. They were not behavior health nurse or psychiatric doctors attending to them, but the designated unit was a step in the right direction. This was all due to the mental health facilities closing. These were the segregated rooms Judge Reeves was referring to in his statements. This is violating their civil rights as human beings. One patient testified that she was “terrified” of state hospitals, Zaveri wrote. The money for the secluded rooms could have been funding towards a mental health facility with psychiatric doctors and nursing staff versus emergency room staff. Mental Health America’s vice president, Debbie Plotnick, says it is more expensive for the state and counties for the cycle to repeat itself of theses patients to keep going to the emergency room, becoming an inpatient in the hospital, and the criminal justice system for help. She goes on to say that if we address the patient’s issues before they become worse and disabled, then they are less likely to need public benefits. They could return to school and/ or work. Mississippi was sued in 2016 by the United States Department of Justice for the Americans with Disabilities Act. Jim Hood, who is currently running for governor, said he told legislature in 2013 we needed community based mental health facilities.
We must have these community-based facilities for the rural areas, because people can not get transportation to travel too far away. Mental illness should be treated just like any other illness such as diabetes. These people have a right to proper treatment versus being discriminated against. They are put in uncomfortable positions, judged, and treated unfairly. They are deprived of necessary treatments, so their symptoms do not get worse and in turn disable them. It is a viscous cycle where no one benefits.
Jail houses end up holding mentally ill patients. Much like hospitals, jails have limited holding cells. Shirley Smith wrote in her Mississippi Today article that mentally ill patients must always be under observation, so they do not cause harm to themselves or others. She quoted Sheriff Travis Patten, who said, “Jail has been the go-to spot for all the mentally ill people.” Patten went of to say that since the state refuses funding that it becomes the 82-county sheriff’s responsibility. This just adds to our issues of our overflowing jail issues too. It violates the civil rights to not provide adequate care by getting the mentally ill in the right facility instead of letting them set in jail. It is not safe for anyone there, even for the officers who are not trained in behavioral health. This scenario also cost the government and state more money in the long run. This cycle needs to be put to rest as much as unnecessary hospitalization for the mentally ill.
The Mississippi Department of Health responded on their website in September 2019 to the federal court orders put in place by Judge Reeves. They quoted part of Reeves order to point out that in the four-week trial, not one state provided a mental health system that did not have flaws. DMH said Mississippi was different than other entities due to its rural nature. DMH is also backing the special masters remedy that is to come. The Mississippi Department of Health positively mentions the current supports they have been implementing such as, mobile crisis response teams, community transition homes, court liaisons, etc.
Some sections of Mississippi have applied and awarded grant funding to keep their community mental health facilities running. Region 8 Mental Health Services community center is an example of one that has seen results and other facilities could adopt their programs. Regions 8’s executive director, Dave Van, says even though our outpatient system may be somewhat fragmented, he thinks it gets a bad rap. Crisis stabilization units are a big part of their success for people close enough to get to one. The Mississippi Gulf Coast would need more funding for crisis stabilization units and training to follow these models for success.
On an even more localized level, the lack of funding, awareness, and education is the root the problem for mental health facilities on the coast. There is a lack of fundraisers and sponsors for mental health to meet the demand on the coast. People like to hide or live in denial of mental illness. If there was more awareness, people would be more open to admitting their and seeking help for their illness. Hospitals could shift more funding, especially Memorial Hospital who is buying more facilities on the coast so people would not have to wait over three months for an appointment.
The Mississippi Gulf Coast has taken a big hit to being able fulfill the need in our area. All the organizations closing is causes people to have nowhere to turn, but to be unnecessarily hospitalized, in jail, or homeless. The staff is constantly shrinking in the places we have left, which will most likely cause them to close eventually. Mentally ill people, who have the means, will have to travel hours north to seek psychiatric help. The coast has not executed a plan of action for the funding yet. Hopefully, the United States government is going to step in to help the coast recover from this epidemic with the new court orders in place. The special masters that will be put in place will create a remedy of new ideals. Creating awareness for our dire need for mental health workers and facilities is key to the efforts to receive funding also. A plan of action to restore Gulf Coast Mental Health would start with new directors that have the experience to build the community facilities back up to running at higher capacities. The coast needs the community-based facilities to stop the inevitable cycle of hospitalization, discrimination, and unnecessary jail time. It will be months before the state sets a plan in place with the special masters.
Works Cited
“DMH Response to Federal Court Order.” DMH Response to Federal Court Order | Mississippi Department of Mental Health, 6 Sept. 2019, https://www.dmh.ms.gov/dmh-response-to-federal-court-order/ .
Knowles, Lindsay. “Gulf Coast Mental Health Center to Close Its Doors at Clinics in Four South Mississippi Counties.” WLOX, 18 July 2019, https://www.wlox.com/2019/07/18/gulf-coast-mental-health-center-close-its-doors-clinics-four-south-ms-counties/ .
Lee, Anita. “Lives Are at Stake. This Is How Mental Health Treatment Became a Coast Crisis.” Sunherald, Biloxi Sun Herald, 12 Aug. 2019, https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article233624242.html.
“Mental Health in America – Access to Care Data: Mental Health America.” Mental Health in America – Access to Care Data | Mental Health America, https://www.mhanational.org/issues/mental-health-america-access-care-data#ten .
Mississippi Department of Mental Health. Jackson, Miss: The Dept., 1997. Print.
Works Cited (continued)
Smith, Shirley L., and Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. “’Jail Has Been the Go-to Spot for All the Mentally Ill’.” Mississippi Today, 30 Sept. 2019, https://mississippitoday.org/2019/09/30/jail-has-been-the-go-to-spot-for-all-the-mentally-ill/.
Smith, Shirley L. “In Mississippi’s Fractured Mental Health System, It’s the Haves vs. the Have-Nots.” Sunherald, Biloxi Sun Herald, 14 Oct. 2019, https://www.sunherald.com/news/state/mississippi/article235959927.html.
Zaveri, Mihir. “Mississippi Mental Health System Violates Federal Law, Judge Says.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Sept. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/us/mississippi-mental-health-lawsuit.html .