County's response to mental health center closure falling into place

Left scrambling with little notice of the Jan. 2 closure of Western Montana Mental Health Center, Lincoln County health officials are reporting that some replacement services are falling into place following weeks of effort.

The Center, whose administrative offices are located in Missoula, closed the Libby facility following sweeping cuts state lawmakers made during last November’s special legislative session to address a deficit.

In addition to serving more than 200 area patients, the Libby facility had provided crisis evaluation services under contract to the county since the early 2000s.

To replace those services, local health officials proposed creating a behavioral health network comprised of existing local mental health professionals and managed by a new county role called a behavioral health liaison.

The network and liaison now both exist, said Lincoln County Public Health manager Jennifer McCully.

Amy Fantozzi, a health education specialist with the county who had been focusing on tobacco prevention efforts, has assumed the role of behavioral health liaison, McCully said.

In addition, five area mental health professionals have committed to provide crisis evaluations as part of the behavioral health network, McCully said.

Crises can result from situations in which someone has harmed or threatened to harm themselves or others and has arrived at the Cabinet Peaks Medical Center emergency room, where a mental health professional evaluates the person’s mental health needs.

If the person requires commitment for treatment, and the person is committed involuntarily — a scenario that happens an average of 12 to 15 times a year — the county must cover the costs of the evaluations and pre-commitment services.

Involuntary commitment requires a specially certified mental health professional. McCully said so far one of the five who have committed to the network has that certification, and the county is open to training others.

In addition to including mental health professionals willing and able to respond to crisis evaluations at the emergency room, the behavioral health network will include others who are willing to commit a certain amount of hours every week to being on call to provide mental health services as people need them, McCully said.

The behavioral health network and liaison are two key components of the county’s response for when people in crisis arrive at the emergency room, yet county health officials also want to lessen how many people arrive there to begin with — a process they call diversion.

To that end, Fantozzi said one goal is to educate people on the resources available to them for when they or those they care for are in crisis.

For example, Fantozzi said, “Sometimes it’s better to go directly to (Pathways Treatment Center, a department of Kalispell Regional Medical Center),” in part because “we have limited transportation” options in Lincoln County to provide hospital-to-hospital transfers.

Fantozzi and McCully said a handful of crisis situations have occurred since the network and the liaison role were established, and they’re pleased with how the new process has worked so far.

“We’re figuring it out with what we’ve got for resources, but we have seen it work,” McCully said.

“I’m feeling very positive,” Fantozzi said.