As part of a proposed renewal of the state’s behavioral health system, the government of the Republican Governor Greg Gianforte is investigating the relocation of a facility for people with developmental disorders, intensifying the renovation of the Montana State Hospital and creating a Helena unit From that psychiatric hospital.
The changes, the proponents say, would fill gaps in the services and help people better prepare for a life outside the closed, safe environment of the two state facilities before they return their own community.
“I think that part of the theme is the responsibility of people in and out of the state facilities, so that we create capacity and have people in the right places,” said Senator Dave Fern (D-Whitefish) during a meeting about the proposed capital projects . Recent interview.
Fern was a member of the Behavioral Health System for Future Generations Commission, a panel that was established by a 2023 law to make suggestions for spending $ 300 million to renew the system. The law reserved $ 300 million for improving state services for people with mental disorders, substance abuse disorders and developmental disorders.
Gianforte’s proposed budget for the next two years would spend around $ 100 million of that fund on ten other committee recommendations. The capital projects are separate ideas for the use of a maximum of 32.5 million dollars out of $ 75 million that is reserved within the $ 300 million in funds for building new infrastructure or renovating existing buildings.
The Ministry of Health and Human Services and advisers of the Behavioral Health Committee presented committee members in October areas for capital investments. In December, the Charlie Brereton committee, director of the State Health Department, gave permission to recommend the following projects to Gianforte:
- Move the Intensive Behavior Center with 12 beds for people with developmental disorders from Boulder, possibly to Helena or Butte, for an estimated cost of a maximum of $ 13.3 million.
- Put on a ‘step-down’ facility of about 16 beds, possibly on the campus of the Shodair Children’s Hospital in Helena, for adults admitted to the Montana State Hospital, but no longer need the intensive psychiatric services of the hospital .
- Invest 19.2 million dollars to upgrade the infrastructure and buildings of the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs, on top of the nearly 16 million dollars that was allocated in 2023 for renovations that are already ongoing there, in an attempt to federal certification get back from the facility.
The State Architecture & Engineering Division assesses the cost estimates of the Health Department and develops a timeline for the projects, so that the information can be sent to the governor. Gianforte must ultimately approve the projects.
Officials of the Ministry of Health have said that they intend to submit the proposals to legislative committees if necessary. “With the Commission and approval of the Governor, the Ministry is of the opinion that it has the authority to continue with the expenditure for capital projects, but that the extra competence of the legislative power to finance operations in future Biennia should be finished “said department spokesperson Jon Ebelt.
The Department presented its facility plans to the Healthcare and Human Services of the legislative power on 22 January as part of a larger presentation about the work of the committee and the ten non-capital proposals in the Governor’s budget. Time limits prevented an in -depth discussion and public commentary on the facility -related ideas.
The committee has not considered one change: moving the Montana State Hospital to a more populated area from the rural and relatively remote location near Anaconda, in the southwest of Montana, in an attempt to alleviate the staff shortage.
“The government is determined to keep investing in MSH as it now exists,” Brereton told the committee in October, referring to the Montana State Hospital.
The hospital offers treatment to people with a mental illness who have been put under civil or criminal proceedings under custody of the state. It is plagued by problems, including the loss of federal Medicare and Medicare financing as a result of the decertification by the federal government in April 2022, personnel problems that led to high use of expensive traveling care providers, and course in leadership.
State Senior Chris Pope (D-Bozeman) was vice-chairman of a separate committee that met between the legislative sessions of 2023 and 2025 and guarded the progress in the direction of a legislative mandate for 2023 to remove patients with dementia from the State Hospital. He agreed in a recent interview that improving – and not moving – of MSH is currently a top priority for the system.
“At the moment we have an institute that fails and has to be brought back to modern times, where it is now,” he said after he had checked a list of challenges that the hospital is confronted with.
During the October Committee Meeting, State Senator John Esp (R-Big Timber) also noted that the relocation of the hospital would probably encounter resistance in every community that was eligible for a new facility.
Fern, the Whitefish senator, wondered in October whether there could be similar concerns about the relocation of the Intensive Behavior Center from Boulder. For more than 130 years, 50 kilometers south of Helena, there is a state provision for people with developmental disorders in one form or another. But Brereton said he believes that the move can succeed if the community and stakeholders are involved.
The twelve -bed center in Boulder serves people who have been committed by a court because their behavior entails an immediate risk of serious damage to themselves or others. It is the last residential building for people with developmental disorders on the campus of the former Montana Developmental Center, which was closed in 2015 by the legislative power.
Drew Smith, an adviser at the Alvarez & Marsal firm, told the committee in October that moving the facility of the city with 1,300 inhabitants to a larger city such as Helena or Butte would offer access to a larger labor pool and possibly a more homely environment Make possible. For residents, and opening more opportunities for residents to communicate with the community and to develop skills to return to their own community.
Ideally, Brereton said, the center would be housed in a new facility that is included in the proposed budget of the governor, for crisis stabilization services for people with developmental disorders who experience significant behavioral problems.
In the meantime, the proposed Subacute facility with a maximum of 16 beds for State Hospital’s home patients would offer a still safe but less structured environment for people who no longer need intensive treatment in warm springs, but are not yet ready to be dismissed from the care of the hospital . Brereton told the committee in October that the facility would essentially serve as a less restrictive ‘expansion’ of the State Hospital. He also said that the agency would like to conclude a contract with a company to man the Subacute facility.
Officials from the Ministry of Health do not expect the new facility to bring construction costs. Brereton has said that the agency believes that an existing building on the Shodair campus would be a good place for this.
The State began to lease the building on November 1 for use by around twenty Staatsziekenhuis patients who were displaced by the current renovation in Warm Springs – a goal other than the proposed Subacute facility.
CEO Craig Aasved from Shodair said Shodair did not decide that the state will permanently use the building as the finishing facility intended by the office and the committee.
But Brereton said that the option is attractive for the health department now that the building has been set up and has a permit to serve adults.
“It seems like a natural place to start,” he told the committee in December, “and we don’t mind that it is here in our back garden here in Helena.”
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