JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Now that a hospital in Mississippi's capital has closed its unit specializing in mental health care, experts fear a domino effect for people seeking such services.
“It’s just, to me, a big blow to the entire system,” Sitaniel Wimbley, executive director of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Mississippi, said of St. Dominic Hospital's decision to shut down its behavioral health services.
“The hospital is actually one of the single points of entry that the crisis intervention team takes individuals to,” Wimbley told WLBT-TV. “So when you call 988, either an officer comes out, or a crisis intervention team will come out, or both. So when someone comes out on the crisis intervention team, if that individual is determined to have to go to a hospital, St. D is one of them.”
The other in the Jackson area is Merit Health.
“Being a part of the mental health community and law enforcement and working with the CIT, Crisis Intervention Team, we know that St. Dominic’s received people from all over the state," especially older adults, said Christiane Williams, a mental health awareness trainer with Leading by Example Mississippi,
Citing financial challenges, St. Dominic stopped taking admissions at the Behavioral Health unit on Tuesday. But officials said they’ll keep providing treatment for its current patients and work to get them to other facilities as needed.
Meanwhile, other groups are looking at how they might fill the gap.
Hinds Behavioral Health is currently trying to get another stabilization unit open, but Williams said it will not be enough to make up for the loss.
“We're really looking at a mini hospital for what St. Dominic’s was providing for the state of Mississippi,” Williams said.
Reducing that number of available beds is the biggest concern resulting from the closure.
“That’s my fear because the more space the better, especially post-COVID,” Wimbley said. “We know that individuals are struggling more. There are more crisis issues.”
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