Two Brookhaven mental health facilities have been suggested forclosure in Gov. Haley Barbour’s budget recommendations for fiscalyear 2011, and local leaders are warning the fight to keep thoseinstitutions open will be difficult – if not impossible.

State Board of Mental Health member Johnny Perkins said fundingcuts to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health are definitelycoming, and whether or not Brookhaven’s Mississippi AdolescentCenter and the city’s Crisis Intervention Center can be maintainedis unclear. The board is meeting this week to develop plans inresponse to the governor’s request to close 10 mental healthfacilities statewide, and a difficult balance between expendituresand patient services must be drawn up, he said.

“I hope the board pulls its pants up on Thursday and decides tosit down and prioritize our services and make some recommendationsto the Legislature on cutting things that will save money withoutimpacting the population we serve greatly,” Perkins said. “Thesecuts can be done in areas that don’t affect direct care.”

Closing MAC, the Brookhaven CIC and eight other mental healthfacilities will save the state $18 million next year, Barbour saidin his recommendations. Cutting the $4.9 million per year MAC and$1.9 million per year CIC, however, would cost 120 SouthwestMississippians their jobs.

Whether or not DMH develops contingency plans for the 10facilities listed by Barbour or offers an alternative is unclear.Department spokeswoman Wendy Bailey said no specific informationwould be available until the board meets at the SpecializedTreatment Facility in Gulfport at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Perkins, however, believes the board should review all itsfacilities and prioritize them to meet the governor’s savingsrequest in an alternative proposal.

The board member from Brookhaven said closing the department’snursing homes at Whitfield and East Mississippi State Hospitalwould save $35 million in direct cost – almost twice the governor’s$18 million savings estimate. Furthermore, operating nursing homesis beyond DMH’s mission, he said.

MAC is also on the fringes of that mission, Perkins said. Hesaid the teenage patients at MAC, who have run into legal troublein their lives, would be better managed by the MississippiDepartment of Corrections. He said the top priority for DMH shouldbe treating the criminally insane, while the most expendableservice the department offers would be the nursing homes.

MAC is somewhere in between, Perkins said.

Brookhaven’s crisis center is high on Perkins’ priority list,however. Although acknowledging problems in the operation of crisiscenters statewide, he said the facilities, when operated asintended, are sorely needed. The centers were built as holdingpoints for patients committed to the state hospital to keep themfrom being housed in county jails until rooms become available.

“I think the crisis centers have an essential function in caringfor the most helpless people we have in our society, the mentallyill,” Perkins said.

The only crisis intervention center spared in Barbour’srecommendations was the Grenada CIC, which is currently beingoperated by Community Mental Health Centers Region Six in a pilotprogram. DMH’s response to the governor’s recommendations statesthe department will “pursue other means to operation the additionalsix Crisis Intervention Center(s).”

District 92 Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, who sits on alegislative task force currently reviewing DMH’s operations, saidshe would “love to see” the department contract with CMHC Region 11to run the local crisis center.

“They never functioned correctly, ever,” she said. “They weremade to keep patients out of jail, and we didn’t do anything toopen the pathway to get them there – they’ve been functioning asmini state hospitals. We have to go back and change the commitmentlaws or this entire thing will never work.”

CMHC Region 11 Executive Director Dr. Steve Ellis said hisregion would “certainly be interested” to discuss such a program inBrookhaven with DMH. He said the Region Six pilot program has seenDMH support operations at the Grenada CIC to see if the center canbe operated at less expense.

“If we were able to make an agreement, we would certainly beable to consult with Region Six about what they had done and itwould probably make it a little less difficult for us to call ontheir experience,” Ellis said said.

In his budget recommendations, Barbour supported increasedinvolvement in mental health treatment by CMHC.