Bannock County gets funding as a step forward to build crisis center

A behavioral health crisis center is one step closer to being a done deal in Bannock County. On Wednesday, Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter signed a bill granting $1.5 million in funding for the center.

“In interviewing the inmates, they all just say, ‘We need some help,'” said Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen.

And that’s help that right now, Bannock County doesn’t quite have for those struggling with behavioral health problems.

“Right now the way you handle it is, we wait for them to do something criminal and we put them in jail,” Nielsen said. “Jail isn’t the place for them. Sometimes even a long-term hospital isn’t the place for them.”

So Nielsen said a crisis center would be like middle ground – a better, more thorough option for them. Local mental health experts agree.

“Right now in this town there are only the jail or the hospital for somebody who’s in mental health crisis and that is not the right place for 99% of people,” said the director of Mental Health Specialists Ric Boyce, LCSW.

With so few options in the community, especially for after hours, Portneuf Medical Center sees its share of behavioral health patients come into its ER.

“We treat about 2,000 patients per year that come in with any kind of behavioral health issue,” explained Todd Blackinton, spokesman for PMC. “In 2017, we admitted, to the hospital, to spend the night – at least one night – 681 patients. And so far in 2018, we’ve 116 people admitted to the hospital.”

PMC has 19 beds for behavioral health patients, but Blackinton said sometimes they can’t take that many. He said some patients require more care and attention and so they can’t take the full 19 patients. He says it’s not uncommon for PMC to have to divert behavioral health patients to other centers, like in Idaho Falls.

Boyce said one of the best things about the crisis center is that it would be 24 hours, which is key to successful treatment. He said he thinks the crisis center is one of the missing links needed in the Bannock County community.

“The best thing they can be doing is getting that support when they are needing it, in the way they are needing it,” Boyce said. “If it’s at 6 a.m., if it’s at midnight, if it is at any time of day, to have the resource in this community to get them connected is going to be a fantastic thing.”

“There is a definite need in the community and we estimate there are about two patients per day that could get care someplace else as opposed to the ER, so if someone can be helped at a lower level of care, that’s best for everybody,” Blackinton said. “It’s best for the resources of the hospital, obviously it’s best for the patient as well.”

Nielsen said the crisis center wouldn’t immediately lower the number of inmates at first, but eventually it could do so down the road as it becomes an alternative for people. But Nielsen said right now, a proactive approach is needed now for the behavioral health inmates they see.

“We average at least for the past three years, average, one attempted suicide a day,” Nielsen explained. So far in 2018, he said they have seen four or five suicides locally.

“Most of these crises go to a peak kind of like that and this top peak is where there’s no hope there’s nothing else but that,” Nielsen said. “If we can bring that down, and that usually can be done by medication, by counseling, or just giving them a break and a place to stay.”

Nielsen said he is working with Bannock County Commissioners on the next possible steps for the crisis center. He said one thing that would need to be figured out before any further progress on the center, is a location for it.

“It’s not a cure all but it’s a step forward, and it’s a big step,” Nielsen said.