The Manhattan City Commission met with State legislators, Pawnee Mental Health representatives and the public Tuesday evening to discuss mental health care and the challenge of properly funding it.
Community stakeholders led off the discussion, with comments from City Commissioners Karen McCulloh and Usha Reddi, who have been very involved in exploring what to do about mental health concerns, as well as Colonel John Melton, Commander of Irwin Army Hospital, Riley County Police Captain Kurt Moldrup, who serves as the jail commander, Dantia McDonald with the Legislative Mental Health Task Force, Kristin Cottam of Via Christi, Kyle Kessler, Director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, Pawnee Mental Health Board President Ed Koehler, and Pawnee Mental Health Director Robbin Cole.
State Legislators participating included 18th District Senator Laura Kelly of Topeka, 22nd district Senator Tom Hawk of Manhattan, 66th district Representative Sydney Carlin of Manhattan, 67th District Representative Tom Phillips, and 64th District representative Susie Swanson.
“We all agree we need to fix the problem, said Commissioner, Wynn Butler. “What can we realistically do, and right now that is we need to put together this stabilization center.”
The center has long been discussed by the City Commission, Pawnee Mental Health and other stakeholders. The cost of such a project is a responsibility Butler said the Pawnee Region should handle.
“Financially, it’s not going to work for just one county to do it or a city, and then if we can get the State Legislature to help us, then that’s ideal,” Butler said.
Representative, Sydney Carlin of Manhattan is positive about the viability of the project.
“We need about 6 rooms and we can do that here,” Carlin said, “and I do think we can use the model of the juvenile detention centers from the 90’s. We got the region together and they decided where they should be located and how they should serve the communities.”
Representative, Tom Phillips of Manhattan thinks the State should be doing significantly more to support mental health care services, but he said the school funding issue is top priority in Topeka.
“The reality that we face right now is we have to address the Gannon Supreme Court case ruling on adequacy of school funding,” Phillips said, “and the plaintiff’s attorney is looking for 1.2 billion dollars.”
State funding may be hard to come by, but that isn’t discouraging the Commission or Pawnee Mental Health from moving forward. Commissioner, Mike Dodson strongly encouraged the group Tuesday to come together to create an action plan that can be sent to Topeka for consideration.
