Mental Health Patients Face Hampered Access To Care

East Texas Health
By LAUREN GROVER
Staff Writer
A recent state mandate has carved out a new treatment path for indigent mental health patients, one local officials are calling unhelpful and carelessly brought about.
All state-funded mental health centers are now required to outsource their in-patient, outpatient and residential treatment to as many willing private providers as possible.
The process began in April and won’t be completed for at least two years.
In Tyler, the Andrews Center held a public forum Tuesday to hear comments about its transition into a mental health authority, where it was once a primary provider.
“We will still be the local authority, doing screenings, but at that point patients will be given a list of providers and able to choose,” said presenter Jim Hartung, a director at the Andrews Center.
Though upbeat, Hartung said the future is a bit grim. In its 40th year, his facility has developed a network of mental health care it’s being asked to walk away from.
Like others around the state, Andrews Center officials have become professional dollar-stretchers. Last month, the center used its state funds to see 900 patients more than it was paid to treat. Last year, it gave out $2 million in free medications to patients.
“Through this new structure, it’s the people outside our target that are potentially left out,” Hartung said. “There are cracks that people fall through.”
The mandate was pushed through the state Legislature to give indigent mental health patients more choices for care.
Center officials said this might be a good move if mental health services weren’t parched all over the Texas — the state is listed 48th in mental health funding per capita.
“We’re almost dead last,” said Susan Rushing, CEO of Burke Center in Nacogdoches.
What’s confusing is the mandate requires more work, but no extra funding, Rushing said.
Services outsourced must be coordinated and monitored by the local mental health authority, many, like the Andrews Center, that have no money to spare.
“I’m concerned about how to manage that,” Rushing said. “To have oversight, that
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