As the state inches toward opening up more psychiatric beds in facilities across the state, it’s clear the focus on that priority can’t be allowed to fade.

This month the Department of Human Services announced it is implementing a plan that funds admittance of 16 rather than 12 patients to fill psychiatric beds in state facilities. (St. Peter stopped admissions Oct. 1 and will close its Community Behavioral Health Hospital in November, the DHS said, but its budget will be reallocated to the remaining hospitals in Alexandria, Annandale, Baxter, Bemidji, Fergus Falls and Rochester.)

The DHS stresses that even though one facility is closing, the system’s overall capacity will increase. At the same time, a new program slated to open in St. Peter is to care for patients who do not need treatment in a hospital or secure facility. That is supposed to free up beds needed for acute psychiatric care.

The demand for more psychiatric beds is just one piece of the puzzle in supporting mental health initiatives. The system can take a lot of revamping. But the bed shortage is an acute problem. Dr. Bruce Sutor of the Mayo Clinic told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that up to 100 mental health patients across the state are awaiting psychiatric care in the ER. Sutor is on a task force appointed to Gov. Mark Dayton to help lead the state in creating a better mental health system.

The state will eventually get there — the 2015 Legislature approved a record $46 million in new funding to support mental health initiatives. In the meantime, though, more psychiatric beds need to be opened up for patients. The wait for appropriate emergency help is at crisis point. At any given time there are 30, 50 or even triple digits in hospital beds around the state waiting for a psychiatric bed, Sutor estimated.

This is not a situation that affects a small number of people. The DHS just released suicide numbers. An increase from seven to 12 suicides between 2014 and 2015 in Blue Earth County comes as rates have been on the rise both statewide and nationally in recent years.

Although not all, of course, need crisis care, more than 200,000 adults and 75,000 children in Minnesota live with mental illness, according to the DHS.

No one wants their loved one waiting desperately or to be shipped clear across the state for that one rare bed that opens up days or weeks later.

Final recommendations of the mental task force are expected in November. The governor will consider the panel’s plan and make his pitch for improving the system. Then the Legislature will need to do its part. The public needs to tell lawmakers how important this matter is to all of us.

— Mankato Free Press, Oct. 16