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Statewide mental‑health gaps, inpatient waits highlighted in Shawnee County presentation
Summary
Kyle Kessler of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers told the Shawnee County Commission that inpatient capacity and workforce losses since the closure of state facilities have left Kansas counties relying on community services, with waiting lists at state hospitals and concerns about proposed federal grant consolidations.
Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers for Kansas, told the Shawnee County Commission that the state’s mental‑health system has lost significant inpatient capacity and workforce since the decline of Menninger Clinic and Topeka State Hospital and that community centers are now handling more of the need.
Kessler said that at one point Shawnee County had more than 1,000 inpatient beds when Menninger Clinic and Topeka State Hospital operated, and that loss of those institutions removed a major workforce pipeline for psychiatrists, nurses and clinicians. “At one point in time, a few years ago, I heard the statistic that nearly a third of psychiatrists in the country could trace their roots back to someone either them receiving training at the Menninger Clinic or someone who they had been…
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