Lawmakers could cut child mental health care, but add psych beds?

More inpatient psychiatric beds and less outpatient care for kids? Could happen in Minnesota this year.

While the future of mental health is supposed to be an increase in community-based treatment, bills being discussed at the Capitol today would have the opposite effect for Minnesota children -- cutting funding for outpatient care and increasing inpatient beds.

The National Alliance for Mental Illness' Minnesota chapter is hosting a press conference today -- and protests all week -- regarding the Senate's proposal to cut $40 million in mental health services in the 2012-2013 biennium.

The cuts include more than $9 million in grants to support school-linked mental health services, which were part of the state's 2007 mental health reform package. The grants fund crisis and treatment services at schools, allowing students to receive immediate help (rather than wait for clinic appointments) and to remain in school and not fall behind.

Also today, the House health and human services reform committee will consider an exemption to the state's hospital construction moratorium that would permit the expansion of a brand new child psychiatric hospital from 20 beds to 50 beds.

PrairieCare opened its new child psychiatric hospital earlier this year in Maple Grove, and within a week it was filled to capacity with children in crisis.

"We were turning away admissions by the third day, because we hadn't staffed up enough for the crush" of admissions, said Dr. Stephen Setterberg, PrairieCare's founder.

It's a remarkable political turnaround for PrairieCare (formerly named Prairie St. Johns) which was vilified in 2008 for its attempts to build a large 144-bed psychiatric hospital in Woodbury. Local hospitals adamantly opposed the plan, and a public interest review by the Minnesota Department of Health concluded that it was unnecessary if the state invested more in community-based services for the mentally ill.

Prairie returned the next year with a modest 20-bed proposal that received little opposition. Now, with Republicans in charge of the House and Senate, PrairieCare appears to face fewer obstacles. The Minnesota Hospital Association also is taking no formal stand on the bill that would permit PrairieCare's expansion.

The hospital averages more than 18 patients per day, which means that it is almost always full. Setterberg described a few of the patients as "very, very aggressive" children with unstable moods or behaviors.