Vocational Transition

Published 8:00 pm Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A state mental health center is pulling the plug in Brookhaven on a service providing intellectually disabled adults with work opportunities, but a private mental health care provider will pick up the program.

     Boswell Regional Center currently operates a vocational center located on Manufacturers Boulevard, but has chosen to eliminate the center as Region 8 offers the same service.

     Boswell’s director Steven Allen said eliminating the vocational program will allow Boswell to concentrate on providing more community-based care.

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     “We’re just reallocating our resources to provide residential instead of prevocational services,” Allen said. “That’s our ultimate goal, to provide more community options.”

     Boswell is one of five regional mental health centers in the state, and Region 8 is a private mental health care provider that opened an expanded center in Brookhaven this year.

     No staff at the vocational center will lose their jobs, Allen said. All employees will transition to providing residential care.

     Currently, Boswell serves about 20 patients in a residential setting in Lincoln County. Allen plans to move some patients at the Simpson County institutional center and place them in a community-based care setting.

     Groups of three patients will rent a home in Brookhaven and Boswell will provide supervision, Allen said. He hopes about 13 patients can be placed in a residential setting in Lincoln County soon.

     The move comes after a U.S. Department of Justice report last year ranked Mississippi mental health care among the worst in the nation. The report said the state places far too many patients in institutions rather than treating them in residential and community settings.

     District 92 Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, has watched the issue closely and believes the attempt by Boswell is an attempt to comply with the Department of Justice.

     “We are institutionalizing too many people so they are trying to move people,” Currie said.

     There is some urgency to the matter.

     “We’re looking at being fined by the Department of Justice,” Currie said.

     Currie expressed concern that the vacancies created at the Simpson County center will simply be filled by more patients, continuing the institutionalization problem.

     Allen, however, said the Department of Mental Health is looking to reduce the number of beds at the Simpson County center by 52 beds over the next three to four years. There are currently 198 beds. He added that the Simpson County center will begin to emphasize short-term stabilization programs.

     Region 8 Director Dave Van said the vocational program also has a role to play to prevent institutional placement and serve the intellectually disabled in their community.

     “It allows these individuals to live at home and work in the community,” said Van. “It’s a special program because these individuals get to work at their own pace. They get paid according to their production.”

     There must be a minimum number of individuals participating in the program before Region 8 can offer within a given county. Van believes about 15 people currently participate in the Boswell program and that will allow Region 8 to get their own version of the program off the ground.

     Allen said the transfer of the service to Region 8 will be done in phases. Beginning in August, Region 8 employees will come work at the Boswell workshop to learn the people Boswell serves.

     At Region 8 work centers, Van said clients put together turkey fryers and stuff direct mail campaigns, among other contracts.

     “It gives them meaningful work and a meaningful life,” Van said.