State set to close mental health facility

Missouri's mental health department plans to close a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed children in Cape Girardeau as a cost-cutting move, department officials said Wednesday.

The Cottonwood Treatment Center at 1025 N. Sprigg is scheduled to close on June 15, but Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder said he and state Rep. Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau plan to try to restore funding to keep the center operating.

State mental health department spokeswoman Lois Thomas said the closing would eliminate 83 jobs and save the state more than $2 million annually in salaries, fringe benefits, expenses and other equipment.

The state leases the tan brick buildings from Southeast Missouri State University. The center opened in August 1987. It has 32 beds and is designed to provide residential treatment for emotionally disturbed children ages 6 to 17. Most of the children are from Southeast Missouri, although the center also serves some children from the St. Louis area. In most cases, the children's parents have volunteered them to be there.

The closing will force the relocation of the children to other treatment centers, said Cottonwood Center director Martha Cassel. She said the closing was recommended by department officials and Gov. Bob Holden.

As part of the closing, the mental health department plans to move 16 beds to its mental health center in Farmington, which has two cottages available for residential care, officials said.

Kinder called the plan "absolutely unacceptable" and vowed to work with community leaders, the state and mental health advocates to keep the center running.

Crowell said parents living in the Bootheel area whose children are at the center "should not have to drive 300 miles to be a part of their children's lives."

Crowell pointed out that the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center is on the grounds of the Farmington Prison, site of two recent escapes by sexual predators.

The center currently houses 30 children. The average length of stay is nine months to a year. With the closing, the closest residential treatment centers for the children will be in St. Louis and Farmington, Cassel said.

She said she and her staff learned of the scheduled closing from department officials Wednesday morning. "Everybody is dismayed," she said.

Cottonwood is one of two mental health centers that would be closed. The other is the Southwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center in El Dorado Springs. Closing that center will eliminate 103 positions, officials said.

In all, closings and reductions will eliminate 375 jobs and cut $7.4 million in expenses, state officials said.

As part of the restructuring, about 28 positions would be transferred to the Farmington Center. Some members of the Cottonwood staff might be hired for some of those positions, officials said.

But Cassel said no one at the Cottonwood center is guaranteed any of those jobs.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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