TRAVERSE CITY — A contract that gives psychological well being companies to the Grand Traverse County jail expired on the finish of December, leaving inmates with out two specialists which have labored there for about two years.
The $163,000 contract is with Northern Lakes Neighborhood Psychological Well being and negotiations have hit a stumbling block, Sheriff Tom Bensley stated.
Bensley stated CMH needs to proceed with its present program that’s modeled after one utilized in Harris County, Texas, and presents remedy and expertise growth in a bunch setting. It’s utterly voluntary and needs to be requested by those that need companies.
However that program doesn’t attain sufficient inmates, based on a examine finished in July by NCCHC Assets. This system can be not best for the dimensions and format of the Grand Traverse jail, which is far smaller than the Harris County jail, Bensley stated.
“We’re attempting to place a sq. peg in a spherical gap with this program,” Bensley stated. “That’s unlucky as a result of I believe there’s a necessity, however we will’t pressure inmates into this.”
Joanie Blamer, chief inhabitants officer for psychological well being companies with CMH, stated she is working with Bensley and others to give you a program that higher fits the jail’s wants.
“We’re negotiating companies to incorporate reaching extra inmates,” Blamer stated. “We want to see extra folks served, in order that has been our focus — how will we attain extra folks?”
As a part of the now-expired contract, CMH supplied a behavioral well being specialist and a peer assist specialist for the jail, every of whom labored 40 hours per week. Neither is now working on the jail for the reason that contract expired.
A gathering is scheduled for subsequent week to proceed negotiations.
The county is also working with the Michigan-based Kona Medical Consulting to search out alternate options to the way in which companies are actually supplied. Whether or not the county goes in one other route for psychological well being companies is a choice that may in the end made by Bensley, county Administrator Nate Alger stated.
“What the advisor needed to provide when it comes to substitute for that contract was encouraging,” Alger stated, although no steps have been taken.
Blamer stated she was not conscious the county had employed a advisor.
The examine by NCHHC Assets, which offers consulting companies for correctional well being care methods, was commissioned by the jail a few yr. The county paid $24,600 for the examine, which was prompted by complaints from some former inmates and their households.
The corporate visited the jail in July and, amongst different issues, discovered psychological well being companies have been too narrowly centered and have been fragmented, with a disconnect between CMH professionals and a psychiatrist supplied beneath the Wellpath medical program on the jail. The examine additionally discovered a scarcity of documentation, with disorganized and incomplete paper well being data and proof that psychological well being companies are usually not being supplied.
As well as, psychological well being assessments which can be speculated to be finished on all inmates admitted to the jail are usually not being finished, therapy planning is missing, and about half of inmates assigned to the psychological well being caseload have had no contact with the CMH specialists, the examine discovered.
A discharge planning program is strong, the examine discovered, however relies on self-referrals, with many inmates not receiving the vital service.
Blamer stated she doesn’t agree with most of the examine’s outcomes.
“The report isn’t correct in some ways,” Blamer stated. “The truth is that they spent lower than 10 minutes with our workers and got here away with these conclusions.”
Blamer agrees that extra folks could possibly be reached within the jail and CMH is now providing companies that may assess extra inmates and develop plans that present a continuum of care.
“We’re right here to advocate for what the very best factor for the inmate is,” Blamer stated.
Bensley stated a part of the issue in not reaching sufficient inmates is the format of the jail, as these in this system must be segregated. One other downside is the jail isn’t in a position to combine inmates with totally different safety classifications, he stated.
The jail has 168 beds, although that quantity is commonly decreased by classifications and now by COVID-19, which requires some inmates to be remoted.
Blamer stated that when this system was first launched there have been two cellblocks getting used — one that would home 12 males and one other for girls. That later modified to only one cell that may home as much as six male inmates.
“We didn’t have the curiosity from the feminine inhabitants,” Blamer stated.
An inmate on the jail should request psychological well being companies, she stated. When this system was put into place it was supposed to incorporate a psychological well being survey that’s given to each inmate; Blamer stated the survey by no means got here to fruition.
Bensley stated he doesn’t know why it was by no means put into place.
Some suggestions from the NCCHC Assets examine are that each one psychological well being companies needs to be supplied beneath one authority and will observe NCCHC requirements for issues resembling assigning tasks, finishing assessments, discharge planning and extra.
The requirement that each one inmates in a bunch program be housed in a single cell needs to be eradicated, the examine stated, and the county ought to undertake an digital well being report system to retailer and maintain data organized and accessible to all who present care.
The jail must also do a psychological post-mortem on all suicides, one thing that’s an trade commonplace however was not finished on two suicides the examine checked out.
Because the contract expired, CMH is offering companies for inmates who’re in psychological well being disaster beneath an enabling settlement that has been in place between CMH and the six counties it serves since 2003. The settlement permits CMH to attract down Medicaid to supply behavioral well being companies, with county funds used to pay the required match {dollars} to Medicaid and the State of Michigan.
Grand Traverse County pays CMH $682,000 per yr beneath that settlement.
“We imagine that fee entitles us to a few of this care in our jails,” Alger stated.
He stated the advisor has reviewed the $163,000 contract and stated it might do higher. Choices embrace offering a stage of care from incarceration to post-incarceration by having a number of contracts with a number of native suppliers.
“We simply must know what route the sheriff needs to go and we will go from there,” Alger stated. “The sheriff needs to get it proper and he’s attempting to work with CMH to try this.”
Bensley stated the jail might resolve to go along with the advisor’s suggestions, it might have Wellpath present psychological well being companies, or it might stick with CMH.
“It could be good to proceed working with CMH,” Bensley stated. “They know us and we all know them. There’s lots to be explored. Sadly it’s taking time.”
Blamer stated she could be very supportive of the jail and the work they’re doing to attempt to enhance companies.
“Regardless of the challenges, we’re nonetheless working collectively to establish what the psychological well being wants are and the way they’re finest met,” she stated.
