Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute could stop taking new geriatric admissions

When it comes to mental health, Southwest Virginia’s elderly soon will have to look more than halfway across the state for a safety net.

Budget cuts might force the Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Marion to stop taking new geriatric admissions before the year is over, Hospital Director Cynthia McClaskey has confirmed.

The unit, which serves patients 65 and older, is slated to close June 30, 2011. And the state’s answer for an alternative – a public facility near Richmond – would mean hours on the road for patients who can’t turn to private hospitals.

“We hope we will be able to discharge as many people back to their home as possible before June 30,” McClaskey said.

The closure, mandated months ago by the Virginia General Assembly, has stymied Delegate Charles W. Carrico Sr. , R–Grayson, who fought the cut by arguing the plan was fiscally unsound.

Saving the geriatric wing “just wasn’t the top priority for everybody because Southwest Virginia is the only one being affected,” Carrico said.

Former Gov. Tim Kaine, whose administration proposed the cuts, argued that money could be saved and private facilities would treat Southwest Virginia’s youth and elderly.

Axing the geriatric unit trims $2 million, and about 30 jobs, from state spending.

At the same time, the Marion center’s adolescent unit, which closed June 30, was cut to trim another $1.4 million, and about 35 jobs. Area youth seeking public mental health treatment now are directed three hours down the road to Staunton.

The budget legislation now closing the Marion geriatric unit offers as an alternative the Piedmont Geriatric Hospital, which is roughly four hours away in Burkeville, near the state capital of Richmond.

Carrico has criticized the Kaine administration’s math ever since the proposal first landed in the General Assembly.

“From what I’ve seen, the cost to keep this here is less expensive than the cost to send (patients) elsewhere in the state,” Carrico said.

For elder-care advocate Steve Eller, the issue is about more than math and money. It’s about treatment options and day-long drives to support a loved one.

Such mental health ailments as Alzheimers can become too severe for a private facility to treat, said Eller, a retired social services director from Smyth County. State mental health units must accept any patient, Eller said, even the people rejected by private hospitals.

“We’ve got a valuable resource here that we’ve cultivated over the years,” Eller said. “All of the sudden, by a stroke of a pen, it’s gone, and that’s uncalled for.”

Hospital Director McClaskey couldn’t offer a reason for why two facility wings are on the budgetary chopping block.

“It’s not because of a problem with treatment,” she said. “A [recent] review showed that our Medicaid program was deficiency free.”

For now, McClaskey is awaiting word from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services on a stop date for new geriatric admissions.

“It will be relatively soon,” she said of both receiving the directive and a stop date.

Meanwhile, Carrico is waiting for the January session of the General Assembly so he can introduce legislation that saves the Marion geriatric ward.

But it will be a lost cause if the ward has already stopped taking new patients, he said.

That would mean there is nothing left to save.

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