Faced with reductions in state funds and facilities for mental health care, the Community Counseling Center is finding new and more cost-effective ways to serve patients, its executive director said.

John Hudak spoke at Tuesday night's League of Women Voters of Southeast Missouri meeting at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

About six months ago, the league formed a study group to take an in-depth look at mental health issues in the area, said Dr. Ada Cruce, who led the group.

"We were concerned about all the money that has been lost and the facilities closing in our state," Cruce said.

Advocating for adequate funding for public mental health services is a focus of the national League of Women Voters group, she said.

Hudak said the number of state-funded acute care beds has fallen in recent years.

"We lost about 30 in Farmington and about 30 in St. Louis. The state pretty much said we're out of bucks," he said.

Since then, community mental health organizations and private hospitals with psychiatric units around the state have stepped up to try to fill the gap, he said.

Since the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center in Farmington, Mo., closed in the fall of 2010, the Community Counseling Center has developed some alternatives to inpatient psychiatric treatment.

It now operates the Lou Masterman Center with three emergency beds hospitals may send patients to for short-term stays instead of admitting them to another inpatient facility.

The Community Counseling Center also now offers a day treatment program, where patients spend six hours per day at the center doing the same types of activities they would in an inpatient program, but come and go each day.

"They have meals, group sessions and see a therapist, then in the evening they go home. It has been very effective," Hudak said.

The center had offered a day treatment program in the past but resurrected it about a year ago, he said.

About 12 people at a time participate in the program.

Although state funds for community health centers have been reduced in recent years, Hudak said the mental health property taxes established many years ago by Cape Girardeau, Perry and Ste. Genevieve counties bring in funds most other communities in the state don't have. Outside of those three counties, only about half a dozen other Missouri counties have a property tax to support public mental health, he said. The tax in Cape Girardeau County brings in about $838,000 per year, $500,000 of which goes to the Community Counseling Center.

"It's never quite enough, though, because of the volumes of requests for our services," he said.

Last year, the Community Counseling Center, which covers Cape Girardeau, Perry, Bollinger, Ste. Genevieve and Madison counties, served more than 8,000 people.

In hopes of improving patient care and saving money, the Community Counseling Center is now coordinating the primary health care of its patients as well as their mental health care needs.

Studies have shown that people with mental illnesses die 25 years earlier than their counterparts in the general population, Hudak said.

"The idea is to provide the care they need before their conditions reach catastrophic proportions. The way to reduce Medicaid costs in the long term is to treat people early," Hudak said.

In January the counseling center began operating the Health Home program. Patients who are on Medicaid and have both a chronic mental illness and other chronic health conditions are coached on health matters by the center's nurses and counselors. Four nurses were hired to coordinate the effort.

"It's a major change to the way we practice," Hudak said. "It's not replacing primary care; we're hoping to supplement it. If people are having difficulty understanding or following up, we want to be there."

Missouri is the first state in the nation to use the Health Home model, he said.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

711 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO

402 S. Silver Springs Road, Cape Girardeau MO