LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) — A person with mental illness goes off prescribed medications, gets unruly, and law enforcement is called.
Maybe the person takes a swing at the responding cop, resulting in a trip to jail and maybe a conviction that leads to prison.
State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha said he’s seen the above scenario play out over and over in Nebraska because the state lacks the facilities to treat those with mental illnesses.
‘Moral issue’
As a result, county jails and Nebraska prisons have become de facto mental health institutions, which Lathrop said are ill-equipped to treat them.
“This is the moral issue of the day,” the veteran senator told his colleagues Tuesday.
Lathrop urged the Legislature to push the state to increase the capacity at the Lincoln Regional Center, especially when it comes to dealing with those awaiting treatment after being deemed incompetent to stand trial.
Right now, inmates wait an average of 128 days in a county jail to get into the Regional Center for such “competency restoration treatment.” One person in the Lancaster County Jail has been on the waitlist for 365 days.
Families ‘begging’
“(Families) are begging the jail to send their loved ones to the Regional Center for treatment,” Lancaster County Commissioner Deb Schorr testified at a public hearing last week.
Schorr was among a parade of witnesses testifying in favor of a bill that would require the state to pay $100 a day if someone deemed incompetent had to wait more than 30 days.
Legislative Bill 1223, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Matt Hansen, would also require that state hospitals have at least 200 beds for such individuals.
Shortage of staff
Right now, because of construction and a shortage of staff, only 164 of the 200 beds at the Lincoln Regional Center are being utilized, and 54 are being occupied by patients committed by a mental health board.
Lathrop said Nebraska has been short of mental health treatment options since the state closed regional centers at Hastings and Norfolk nearly two decades ago.
Perhaps 300 beds, statewide, exist to treat the seriously mentally ill, Hansen said, when between 750 and 1,000 are probably needed. He said that by requiring the state to pay for those waiting for treatment, it’s hoped that it will lead to more state beds for treatment.
“It’s not right,” Lathrop said of the lack of beds and wait lists. “Mental health is probably the No. 1 issue for this body.”
“This is a huge issue,” added Sen. Curt Friesen of Henderson, who related his own story of a local woman, troubled with mental illness, who landed in a state prison due to lack of adequate local treatment.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services testified in opposition to LB 1223 on Thursday.
Construction over soon
Larry Kahl, DHHS’s chief operating officer, said the department is working to reduce the length of stay for patients at the Regional Center and working to shorten the wait times. He said allocating a certain number of beds for certain patients, as LB 1223 would do, could increase wait lists. The center, Kahl added, may not be able to hire the staff to cover a larger number of patients.
A fiscal note for LB 1223 indicated that the $100-per-day reimbursement might cost the state between $900,000 to $1.3 million a year.
DHHS also indicated that at least one of the buildings under construction for safety improvements should be reopened by next month and that all construction should be completed by this fall.
The Regional Center spent $4.5 million in 2021 for traveling nurses because of a staff shortage. Recently, wages were increased to attract and retain more staff. Since November, there’s been a 30% decrease in staff vacancies for security workers, an official said Tuesday.
Hansen said he planned to request an executive session soon to see if he can advance LB 1223 from the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, which Lathrop chairs.
Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Cate Folsom for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. Follow Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.
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