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County hears update on regional crisis center; officials cite fewer ER visits, expanded capacity
Summary
Staff from a regional behavioral health crisis center told the Clay County Commission the new facility has expanded capacity and voluntary use, and said emergency room visits for behavioral health dropped substantially where the center operates. Commissioners heard the update but took no formal action.
Tom Stanich, identified in the meeting as a technician with New Jersey Park People Health, told the Clay County Commission the center’s new facility has expanded capacity and is seeing more voluntary admissions and fewer emergency-room presentations for behavioral health.
Stanich said the center increased its bed capacity from eight to 14 after moving into a new building and reported several recent days with 10 or more patients on the crisis unit. He said voluntary admissions have risen and that ‘‘very few individuals that we take care of have to be referred on to a higher level of care.’’
The presentation emphasized community benefits. Stanich said visits to the emergency department for behavioral health fell by an estimated 70 to 80 percent in Yankton County since the crisis center opened two years ago; comparable data for Vermillion’s emergency department was not provided. He added that more than half of people who come to the center on mental-illness holds have been stabilized and returned home rather than transferred to inpatient psychiatric hospitals.
Madison Miller, who accompanied Stanich at the meeting, described services available at the facility, including outpatient behavioral-health care, psychosocial rehabilitation, residential substance-use treatment and detox. Stanich said the center does not turn patients away for inability to pay and called the facility ‘‘a safety net’’ for uninsured and low-income residents.
The presenters also told commissioners the center is offering short-term stabilization that can reduce county costs tied to emergency-room visits, inpatient admissions and pre-commitment hearing days that counties previously managed. Stanich said the state has begun assuming some responsibilities that formerly fell to counties, reducing certain county expenditures when higher-level hospitalization is avoidable.
Commissioners asked questions but took no formal action on the presentation. The center’s representatives encouraged county officials and the public to visit the facility for a tour.
The presentation included a request for county support for operations; the exact county funding request stated in the meeting transcript was not clearly recorded.
