MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AT WASHINGTON CO. JAIL DISCUSSED AT LENGTH DURING WORKSHOP
The state of mental health services at the Washington County Jail was the main focus of a lengthy – and at times heated – workshop Tuesday with county commissioners.
The court met with representatives from the sheriff’s office, MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley and CorrHealth, the county’s medical provider at the jail, to discuss staffing concerns and issues currently being experienced with providing mental health services to inmates.
County Judge John Durrenberger explained that MHMR has been understaffed and unable to provide the full mental health services stipulated in its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the county. It is seeking an amended MOU where it pays for services rendered, rather than a set fee.
Jail Chief Deputy Eric Hensley said this method used to be how the jail handled mental health services, but the county switched to the static amount because of the growing need for those services.
According to Hensley, the current mental health population at the jail, meaning inmates who receive mental health services or medication, is roughly 60 to 65 percent.
Diana Lyles of CorrHealth said some patients have not been seen since first being referred for mental healthcare in November. She said the systems of CorrHealth and MHMR “don’t talk to each other”, meaning referrals are either handed to an MHMR official when they come in or are left in an office. Hensley said those referrals “just pile up on the desk” because MHMR has other patients to care for outside of the jail, and “the mental health is suffering in the jail because of that.”
Dorothy Morgan, former Washington County judge and the chair of the MHMR board, said the organization has been attempting to hire a full-time staffer to care for inmates. She said its computer systems have also been having issues that prevent the use of telehealth services. Lyles said the lack of services could lead to a preventable tragedy at the jail. She said, “We’re one Sandra Bland incident away.”
Commissioner Kirk Hanath said this was the first time he has heard of these issues and questioned why he or another commissioner was not made aware of them sooner, saying communication needs to improve. He said members of the court, as well as lead officials from MHMR and CorrHealth, need to hold a meeting together in order to determine how to move forward and what the deliverables and expectations are for MHMR. He said if this does not work, then the county may consider going out for requests for proposals for mental health services.