A fresh new voice!

The State's Mental Health Hospital

By John Mayo (D., DeSoto County)

Mississippi House of Representatives

August 25, 2010

Years ago the mention of that word was followed with “insane asylum,” “nut ward” and worse.

This is a hospital foremost where people are treated for diseases and disorders of the brain, acceptable behavior, and the aging process.  The Hospital serves cases ranging from addictions to paranoia to dementia.

Nine years ago I toured the medical center and did again this morning.  I really wanted to see two things…more correctly one place and one outcome.  I wanted to see the children’s psychiatric wing of the hospital (actually a complex of scores of

buildings, each serving a particular purpose) and learn the impact of our budget

cuts.

For the last three weeks I have been working or trying to help get a bed for a

friend of nearly 40 years who has experienced a permanent brain disorder brought about by a lack of blood and thus oxygen to the brain. 

There’s nothing we have addressing his condition.  And, if there were, there are not any readily available beds to provide him.  His family is left with an option of jailing him for his own and perhaps other’s protection.

More about the children’s wing in a minute.

Our budget cuts have resulted in the closing of 159 beds, several buildings, and laying off nearly 300 employees.  Beds were closed as patients were discharged and

layoffs began four years ago when we began chipping away at the budget and the

Mental Health Department began preparing for deeper cuts.

Mental Health across the state has adjusted to ever growing community based services.  The hospital now triages patients.  They have a difficulty taking long-term commitments simply because of the lack of personnel and beds.  But, they are

admitting more short-term patients whom they can treat, stabilize and return to the community.

This works well when the resources and mental health services are available in the community.  Those resources include a place to stay, a job, an environment where people will not take advantage of the patient, and an opportunity where a person can take care of himself or herself. 

The mental health personnel need to be available to check in on the patient, for counseling, or other needed services. To that end, the hospital has an onsite sort of half way house where persons about to be discharged reacquaint themselves taking care of themselves.

I was shown around this facility by a man who had schizophrenia and in the care of the hospital facility for 20 years.  He is now being prepared and preparing himself to “go home.”

To answer the cuts, Whitfield is going to apartment owners and talking with them about renting rooms in a section of an apartment complex to people who have proven to themselves and the hospital that they are ready to re enter community life. 

Of course, I said the same thing you are probably thinking, “That’s going to cause problems.”  But, wherever a former patient may be like this, he or she will be well-supervised by the department and local mental health personnel to assure a smooth

transition.

I want to write of the children’s wing (called the “Oak Circle Center”) and send out a plea.  When you go to Whitfield you will see scores of buildings, all built in the 1930’s.  They look dated on the outside, but have been kept up and made modern on the inside.  The grounds are immaculate.

I wanted to return to this facility because I learned just what giving of yourself was from a friend whom I did not know, who took in a little girl many years ago and raised her to adulthood.  Most of the children at Oak Circle are there not just because of disruptive psychosis behavior, but behavior often brought about by very poor parenting.

Hard to believe, but our brains are “hardwired” at infancy and the toddler years not only for cognitive skills, but also behavior personality.  Children learn and accept as normal much of their behavior to the point that when they become adults, their anti-social behavior is normal to them.

The hospital has day-to-day needs that go beyond appropriations, treatment, and therapy.  Nine years ago I wrote a similar e-mail and asked for help for the hospital.

The children’s wing and the “halfway” home are in need of modern TV’s, board games, and DVD’s.  They still have the big box TV’s from nine years ago and VCR’s.

It’s been so long, I had to ask my host, “What are those machines called you put videos in?”

If you are in a position to donate a flat screen TV, a DVD player, DVD’s, or board games…please, no games with missing pieces or torn up, I will be glad to pick them up somewhere.  If you would like to make a donation, you can make it out to: “Friends of the Hospital” and for Oak Circle or half-way home.

They would be grateful.

Mental health is now a passion of mine as much as education has been.

 My phone number is 662 902 8633 My address is 803 West Second St, Clarksdale, MS 38614.