Mental health centers may not have to close

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Two mental health centers scheduled to close June 30 might remain open after all, the director of the state Department of Mental Health said Tuesday. Gov. Bob Holden, in his budget plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1, proposed to save $7.4 million by closing the Cottonwood Children's Center in Cape Girardeau and the Southwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center in El Dorado Springs. But Dorn Schuffman, director of the Department of Mental Health, told a House appropriations committee Tuesday he thought both centers might be saved. "We're working on it. Having the money is the issue," Schuffman told reporters after the hearing. "With Cottonwood, we're very close."

Schuffman said officials are studying ways to keep the centers open, possibly by securing more federal money or sharing space -- and therefore costs -- with another state agency.

Under Holden's plan, 10 beds at the El Dorado Springs facility would be eliminated and the other 20 moved to Fulton State Hospital, 150 miles away. At the Cape Girardeau center, half of the 32 beds would be eliminated and half transferred about 80 miles to the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center in Farmington.

Schuffman said the department was considering renovations at the El Dorado Springs center that would eliminate six beds but bring the building in line with federal standards, which would in turn could attract more federal money.

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Mental Health budget is HB1012.

On the Net:

Missouri Legislature: http://www.moga.state.mo.us

Department of Mental Health: http://www.dmh.state.mo.us