Robert Patrick and Charles Ralph Abbey (right) are among the mentally ill persons who rely on some of the services provided at Topeka's Breakthrough House, an organization that since 1978 has helped people who are coping with mental illness. by phil_cauthon

It isn’t hard to find a Kansas police official upset with the state’s mental health system.

But Brad Schoen, director of the Riley County Police Department, is particularly outspoken.

“Frankly, the social service component of what’s going on in the state’s mental health system is an embarrassment,” Schoen said.

For the past few years, government funding for the state’s 27 community mental health centers has failed to keep pace with the number of people needing services and treatment. The local centers became the cornerstones of the state’s mental health system following reforms in the early 1990s that decreased reliance on the state mental hospitals.

“It started out with ‘We’re going to establish all these mental health centers, there’s going to be all this funding and it’ll all be locally controlled.’” Schoen said. “Well, that lasted until the funding got tight, and they’ve been cutting continuously since then.”

Actually, funding for the system has been up and down since 1991. But for the past five years it has been flat or significantly decreased even as the number of people seeking services has grown.

As a result, say Schoen and many other law enforcement officials, they increasingly end up dealing with mentally ill people who otherwise might not have landed in the criminal justice system.

“We have a guy in jail right now who’s accused of killing a gentleman in the northern part of the county,” Schoen said. “I can tell you his mental health is not good, and in my opinion he’s the kind of person we were told was going to be taken care of by the establishment of all these local mental health centers. Our mental health center is doing everything it can with the resources available. It’s the state that’s not held up its end of the bargain.”

The latest budget problem that the centers face stems from the most recent contract struck between them and the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. Projections used to develop the contract underestimated the Medicaid services the centers provide. That increased the savings the state expected from the contract from 8.5 percent to about 11 percent. But more savings for SRS meant fewer dollars for the centers, prompting at least one to announce layoffs and reduced services.

As state officials continue to look for ways like that to cut budgets, the problems of access to mental health services are increasingly apparent to more people than the police.

Disintegrating support system

One of the legal provisions of the mental health reform of 1991 was that the mental health centers would serve all who needed help. But with budgets tightening even as demand for services has grown, those with less severe or obvious problems often end up waiting longer for care.

“It’s a lot more difficult to get in to see somebody,” said Chris White, a peer specialist who works with the mental health center in Leavenworth. “It’s like they’re always overbooked.”

Barb Andres is executive director at Venture House, a Wichita program sponsored by Episcopal Social Services.

Many of those served by Venture House are homeless or near-homeless and many are mentally ill.

“We have always had people come in who are dealing with a mental illness. That’s not new,” Andres said. “But what is new is we’re starting to have people come in who are actively psychotic. They are very, very ill.

“They were ill before, but what’s happened is that with all the cuts, the support system that used to help them maintain has disintegrated,” she said. “The whole system — it may be housing or being able to get in to talk to someone about getting your meds adjusted — is pulling back. It’s focused a lot more on crisis than it is on helping people maintain.”

Continue reading at khi.org/mentalhealth.