Status of $1.6 million in state funding is unclear
Haines’ mental health care needs aren’t being met, wrote Haines Borough Mayor Doug Olerud in an Aug. 18 letter to Juneau’s Bartlett Regional Hospital. Some residents have had to wait two months to receive care, Olerud wrote, asking that Bartlett provide assistance, as it did after the December landslide.
“Our response is absolutely yes to the request,” Bartlett’s chief behavioral health officer Bradley Grigg told the CVN. “We’re not going to take our time on this. We are moving very quickly.”
While Bartlett hasn’t set a start date for in-person services in Haines, the hospital, which already serves Haines residents via telehealth, secured office space at 219 Main Street for outpatient care. Grigg visited the borough and met with officials last Friday. Bartlett plans to send staff to Haines for one or two weeks each month, Grigg said.
Officials have said there’s increased demand for mental health care due to the pandemic and December storms and that a labor shortage has limited services. Olerud told KHNS that SEARHC is down from three clinicians to one.
Meanwhile, $1.6 million was supposed to be channeled this year into Haines through the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services to expand behavioral health services. But the status of those funds is unclear. State officials didn’t respond by press time to emails and phone calls about the money.
Bartlett will be using its own funds and existing staff to establish services in Haines. It didn’t receive $1.4 million in federal CARES Act funding that the state health department announced in December would be distributed to the hospital to provide behavioral health services in Haines. Grigg said the state decided not to give Bartlett that funding “due to a lot of legislative and legal concerns.” He declined to comment on the details of the state’s decision.
The CVN reported in April that after deciding not to grant Bartlett the $1.4 million, the state said it would give those funds directly to Haines and that borough officials were working with legislative representatives to secure the funding. Interim borough manager Alekka Fullerton said this week that the borough never received the money. State officials didn’t respond by press time to emails and phone inquiries .
This spring the state solicited applications from providers for $200,000 in emergency funding for behavioral health services in Haines. Bartlett didn’t apply for that award. Grigg said he doesn’t think Bartlett was eligible. The state didn’t respond to requests for comment about whether that funding was awarded and which provider got it.
SEARHC spokesperson Maegan Bosak didn’t respond to a question about whether SEARHC applied for or received the $200,000 grant.
The sole clinician at SEARHC, Cesre McQuaid, referred the CVN to the health provider’s marketing department for comment.
“The stress, anxiety, frustration, loneliness and constant change caused by the COVID pandemic and the trauma experienced by many in the Haines community due to the devastating natural disaster have magnified the need for mental health and substance use services,” Bosak wrote in an email to the CVN.
“Currently, there is a serious shortage of behavioral health specialists across the United States, and rural, remote communities have been particularly hard hit. SEARHC is actively recruiting qualified behavioral health clinicians wishing to reside in Haines,” Bosak wrote, adding that SEARHC is expanding its telehealth capacity in Haines.
After the December landslide, Bartlett sent staff members to Haines to aid in disaster relief. Groups of 10 staff, including psychiatrists, nurses and social workers, spent two weeks in Haines in December and two more in January.
Grigg said that Bartlett established relationships with community members during that time and is looking to assist now with a hybrid model between telehealth and in-person care. “One of the things that we learned when we were in your community in December and January was that physical face-to-face interactions and care are hard to beat.”
Grigg said he hopes to present a formalized plan to the borough by mid-September.