Mental health center returns to county
More than two years after state budget cuts forced the Western Montana Mental Health Center out of Libby, the organization is returning to Lincoln County.
Officials hope to see a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week mental health team up and running in Libby by as soon as February. As part of the rollout, the center will hold a job hiring fair Jan. 14.
Abby Harnett, regional director at the Western Montana Mental Health Center, said the organization has been working toward returning to Lincoln County since it underwent restructuring and brought aboard a new chief executive officer a little over a year ago.
Harnett, who previously ran the center’s Libby outpost, was acutely aware of the demand for mental health services in the area.
“Just having worked there for so long, I knew the need is there,” she said of Libby. “I stayed close with some of the professionals up there, knew what was going on with the lack of mental health services. The community, though, did a great job of stepping up and filling in when we left.”
When it returns, the mental health center will take a new approach, she said. While they will reprise their former office space, their approach to healthcare mirrors the house calls doctors made in years gone by.
A team of case managers, nurses, therapists, addiction counselors and others will visit with patients in their home, she said. They also can deliver medication, she said.
“Clients can come to the office and receive services, but mostly it’s the team going to the client in the community,” Harnett said. “It’s a one stop shop. They get all their needs met with one team.”
The new model, known as a Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) is considered a best practice nationally. It already exists in places like Butte and Kalispell, but Libby will be the first rural community in Montana to see it, Harnett said. The state supports it by reimbursing the center for case management through avenues like Medicaid.
Clients can be referred to the team through a variety of sources, including physicians, law enforcement, relatives and hospital staff, Harnett said. To start, the organization will take on six clients a month, but they expect that to grow to 65, she said.
“The goal … is to integrate them into the community so that they get the care and support that they need locally,” Harnett said. “That’s really what we’re hoping to do with the PACT team: keep people in their community, keep people local, where they live and thrive much better.”
They also are hoping to hire locally. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Jan. 14 at Libby Job Service, center staff will hold interviews for licensed therapists and addiction counselors, care coordinators, peer supports, nurses and a licensed clinician interested in serving as a program lead. A human resources manager and the organization’s chief operating officer will attend to conduct on-the-spot interviews with qualified candidates, Harnett said.