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| 7/23/2008 10:09:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Williamson needs mental health respite
By LISA BIRKMAN
Pct. 1 Commissioner
Last summer I spent a day with Sgt. Mike Sorenson of the County's Crisis Intervention Team. One of the calls was very memorable.
We arrived at a local hospital to see a young woman who was in the ER, as she had taken an overdose.
She nearly died but luckily a neighbor stopped by, found her unconscious. and called the paramedics.
Unfortunately, this was not her first suicide attempt, but on this occasion CIT was called in to decide if she was still a danger to herself and, if so, transport her Austin State Hospital.
The young lady had been to ASH before and, understandably, did not want to go again.
An important factor as to whether she could go home right away related to any support system she would have. As it turned out, she had none. She lived alone and had no family nearby.
If the CIT deputy would have had another reasonable choice of a place for the patient to go, she might have avoided a costly stay at ASH.
In order to address mental health issues such as the ones of this troubled woman, the Williamson County Mental Health Task Force - of which I am a member, along with many other community leaders - in partnership with Bluebonnet Trails MHMR and all the local hospitals have teamed up with the state to fund and operate the county's first mental health respite center.
I looked up "respite" and it means "an interval of rest or relief."
This respite facility will provide that interval of rest for otherwise healthy adults with mental illness. It will be a temporary home for up to 10 residents who go there voluntarily and do not have a history of violent crime.
Eligibility will be determined by trained mental health professionals from Bluebonnet and patients will stay there for an average of three to seven days.
Other task force members and I visited several of these facilities in other counties. We concluded it would be a great addition to our mental health crisis intervention system.
Bluebonnet was able to get a grant to fund the first year and local hospitals agreed to put up matching funds. The total cost will be about $700,000, not including all the services Bluebonnet brings in.We hope to find a location and open the facility in the next few months,
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