Rogers Gives Annual Mental Health Update
Rogers Gives Annual Mental Health Update
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – Yalobusha supervisors learned how much bang for the buck the county receives for the $20,800 annual contribution to Communicare for community mental health services during the yearly update provided by the agency’s director, Dr. Sandy Rogers, during a recessed meeting last month at the Water Valley courthouse.
Rogers explained Communicare serves six north central Mississippi counties including Calhoun, Lafayette, Marshall, Panola, Tate and Yalobusha and has a total budget of $8.625 million. She outlined the wide range of services her agency offers for adults and children including outpatient services in each county.
Rogers also explained that she works with Chancery Clerk Amy McMinn to assist with alcohol and drug or lunacy commitments when families seek help for a loved one battling an addiction. But, she explained the state has closed down the male beds for alcohol and drug treatment at both Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield and East Mississippi State Hospital, a treatment that had been provided at no cost for indigent patients.
With the closures, Rogers stressed Communicare continues to work with McMinn to try to get patients treatment as quick as possible and work to keep the costs minimal for the patient or for the county when the addict is indigent.
“I had three last week, I had one walk in this morning at 8 a.m.,” McMinn said about the ongoing mental commitments that are referred to Chancery Court. McMinn added that Communicare has a grant program to help pay for treatment for A&D (alcohol and drug) treatment for indigent patients, but she explained cost comes back to the county.
“It cost $50 a day for the county to put somebody in at Communicare for A&D treatment,” McMinn explained.
“Which is minimal… three meals a day, individual counseling, group counseling and family counseling. And actually trying to treat them and not just house them, $50 a day is not a lot of money,” Rogers said.
McMinn also requested for Rogers to explain to supervisors how the process works, specifically asking if an addict can be forced to seek treatment.
“No, we are an unlock facility,” Rogers answered.
“So there are pretty much no lock-down facilities left in the state?” McMinn asked.
“Correct, not for alcohol and drug,” Rogers answered.
“That means you can’t hold them against their will,” McMinn explained.
Rogers added that even before the male A&D beds at state hospitals were closed, patients that didn’t want treatment were often released. She also shared statistics for all mental health services provided by her agency during the past year.
• 591 individuals received services through Communicare this past year including 154 children. Rogers added that therapy service for children is provided in the public schools.
• There were 161 new intakes for individuals seeking services.
• There were 354 medication evaluations for individuals seeing the psychiatrists.
“The physicians that we have come out of Memphis, there are no psychiatrists in this area,” Rogers explained.
• There were 18 individuals in the county come in for monthly or every-other week injections to remain stable.
“These are individuals who are usually in and out of the state hospitals regularly are noncompliant with oral medication,” Rogers added.
• Communicare employs 14 full-time people in Yalobusha County for a total payroll of $443,000.
Other business conducted at the August 22 meeting included:
• Supervisors approved the 2016 public utility roll assessments in the amount of $5,341,582. Tax Assessor /Collector Linda Shuffield explained the entities are centrally assessed in Jackson, and the county is provided the figures for collection of taxes. The assessment includes $22.50 per electric pole line mile; $15 to $125 per mile of pipeline, $5 to $90 per mile of rail line and four cents per telephone.
• Washington provided an update on a recent meeting that Board Attorney John Crow, District 4 Supervisor Tim Booker and he attended with officials at Ajinomoto Windsor Foods in Oakland.
The meeting follows a boil water notice issue in July for the county operated water system that supplies water to the plant. The problem was quickly corrected, but the company had to cease production for several days and test food that had been produced during the time the water may have had low chlorine levels.
Washington explained that the county’s water operator will do everything he had been doing in the past, but another step will be added to the process as a precaution.
“The only difference is, if our water operator sees something on a residual chlorine check that he does twice a week, he is going to pick up the phone and notify Windsor,” Washington explained. In the July case, the water operator followed state protocol and immediately sent several additional samples for testing before the boil water notice was issued by the Department of Health. However, company officials voiced frustration to the county because production continued several days after the operator suspected there was a problem with the water.
• Approved the change of the daily schedule for the county’s purchasing clerk to add a 30-minute lunch break. The discussion followed a report from Washington about last month’s relocation of the justice court office, purchasing clerk office, garbage collection office and E-911 office to the Coffeeville courthouse.
“I think everyone is settling in really well,” Washington told supervisors. The purchasing clerk will continue to start her day at 7:30, but will get off at 4 p.m. instead of 3:30 to allow the lunch break. The earlier start is to coincide with the early morning schedule of the road hands working in the county’s five beats when they may need to request a purchase order.
