SW Va. adolescent unit not fully used
January 25, 2009
Published: January 25, 2009
In Marion, in the heart of rural Virginia, serving psychiatric needs is not easy.
The unemployment rate is generally among the highest in the state, there’s no public transportation, and private psychiatric hospitals are scarce. The nearest one is in Salem.
The state’s Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Marion serves the huge area — a little more than 500,000 people — with its 172 beds for adults, geriatric patients and adolescent psychiatric patients.
“We like to say we’re the only full-service facility in the state,” said Cynthia McClaskey, a clinical psychologist and director of the institute.
But that full service may be coming to an end with a state directive to close the 16-bed adolescent unit by March 1 to save money.
The adolescent unit is a regional inpatient unit that also serves as backup for statewide admissions normally served by the Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents in Staunton. The unit serves adolescents ages 13 through 17 who require care and mental-health treatment in “a safe, structured environment,” according to its Web site.
The adolescent unit is not fully used — the unit averages about five or six adolescent patients a day. Part of the reason for the low numbers is the quick turnaround: Patients stay an average of three weeks, which is the unit’s goal. The adolescent unit serves about 220 youths a year.
The savings to the state if the Marion adolescent unit closes would be $1.38 million, McClaskey said. The hospital operates on an annual budget of $32 million. The unit employs 28 staff members, all of whom will find jobs in other areas of the hospital, McClaskey said. But about nine teachers probably will be laid off.
Though it’s “relatively expensive to run,” the adolescent unit is critical, she said. “Our real concern is that the safety net is going away. [The patients] are of such a complicated clinical picture” that private hospitals simply decline to take them.
“I’m very concerned about adolescents with complicated needs we usually serve,” McClaskey said. “We’re trying to be part of [the state’s] plans to see who and how those youngsters will be served.”
That plan has been confusing at times. The adolescent unit initially was ordered to close Dec. 31 before the deadline was changed. The unit also was ordered to not accept any more patients Dec. 17, but by the end of that day the order was rescinded.
McClaskey added that Virginia needs to be known as a state that supports its most vulnerable children. “Do we want to be known as a state that supports tobacco or a state that supports children?”
Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or csantos@timesdispatch.com .
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