Far too many people are ending up in psychiatric units at Minnesota hospitals when they could be receiving care in a less intensive and less costly facility. And some who end up in hospitals should be getting more intensive care at a psychiatric hospital.

The findings from the Wilder Foundation and the Minnesota Hospital Association come from tracking stays at 20 hospitals including Mankato’s.

The report is yet another warning about the failure to provide proper mental health care in the state. The federal government has officially designated all but a handful of counties in the state as being “mental health professional shortage areas.”

Last year an influential panel released an exhaustive study and recommendations to the state Legislature, outlining the severity of the shortage of mental health workers and strategies for attracting more.

The 2015 legislative session began to address some of the problems with $46 million in new funding directed at supporting mental health initiatives in the state. Those efforts included trying to make mental health care more accessible in Greater Minnesota and to address workforce shortages.

But the problem won’t be fixed easily. A lack of beds at state-operated facilities and a lack of beds for children with serious mental health needs remains a significant problem, as does a lack of mental health care professionals.

That lack of beds causes a ripple effect that puts more pressure on hospitals such as Mayo in Mankato.

And the lack of mental health care professionals doesn’t just affect intensive care treatment, it means children and adults who could benefit from earlier intervention often don’t get the care they need and may see their issues worsen.

The lack of resources for mental health care also shifts an undue burden onto law enforcement, which is increasingly left to deal with mentally ill people who should have gotten help before a crisis. Holding the mentally ill in jails because of a lack of resources is a blemish society should be ashamed of.

This year’s disastrous, do-nothing legislative session left little room for any improvements in mental health care (or for much of anything else).

Let’s hope the newly elected Legislature and Gov. Dayton can return to this important issue next year.

 

— Mankato Free Press, Aug. 16