County pledges assistance for mentally ill
"Resources, in our current facility, for the
mentally ill are very thin."
Dr. Keith Sivertson,
director of St. Luke’s emergency department
By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer
Representatives of the National Alliance of the Mentally
Ill (NAMI) from all over Idaho got what they came for at Monday’s Blaine
County Commissioners meeting.
After listening to the testimony of NAMI members, doctors
and the mentally ill, Commissioner Mary Ann Mix addressed the 50 to 55
people who packed the meeting room in the old courthouse.
One by one she repeated the three petitions the advocates
for the mentally ill had come with, and then she answered them.
Mix said the commission would reactivate the Mental Health
Task Force, and that Commissioner Sarah Michael would be in charge of
getting things going. Michael said the group would address the issue of
installing crisis beds at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center.
Mix said the commission would review the protocols that
regulate protective police custody of the mentally ill. That issue as well
will be part of the task force’s agenda.
NAMI is not happy with the current protocols because, the
group contends, they put those detained under too much stress.
Mix said the commission gave the group its
"intellectual and emotional support" for the installation of
crisis beds at St. Luke’s, but in order for the commission to give its
unqualified support, it needs to study the "logistics" of such a
program.
St. Luke’s now has a "safe room" meant to
temporarily hold the mentally ill in police custody until they can be
evaluated to determine whether treatment is required. That means the
mentally ill suffering heightened symptoms of their disease (in crisis)
may not be treated for more than 24 hours.
Crisis beds at St. Luke’s, according to NAMI
representatives, would mean the mentally ill in crisis would receive more
immediate treatment.
Dr. Keith Sivertson, director of St. Luke’s emergency
department, spoke for the hospital after the advocates had finished.
"My concern," he said, "is that we are
forgetting that people treat people. I am concerned about this focus on
bricks and mortar. Resources, in our current facility, for the mentally
ill are very thin."
After agreeing to participate in the mental health task
force with NAMI, Sivertson said, "I would offer to you—and this may
sound harsh—but every patient brought in by the police is a failure of
this community."
He included the hospital in his definition of community,
along with NAMI, governmental and regulatory entities in the valley,
families and the medical community.
He said if he were given $100 to solve the problem,
hypothetically, he would spend most of it on education, identification,
treatment and support of the mentally ill.
Whatever was left over of the money he would use for those
the community had failed to identify, treat and support.
A member of the audience wanted to know why the hospital
didn’t have psychiatrists on staff.
Sivertson said it was a matter of free will. Psychiatrists
in the valley "can choose to practice medicine and not be on the
hospital’s staff."
His argument was that no one, not even doctors, wants to
be on call 24 hours a day and then still be expected to put in his or her
regular daytime hours.
"This is why I emphasize the human capital involved
here."
He stressed his willingness to find solutions to the
problems of the mentally ill, but, he said, "We need to remove the
strident talking past each other."
