As staff at the Minnesota Security Hospital (MSH), we wish to call attention to the fact that Minnesota’s mental and supportive health system is at risk. Gov. Mark Dayton proposed using some of the $1.65 billion surplus for long-overdue increases to Direct Care and Treatment, or DCT, and MSH. The Legislature responded by cutting $300 million to $600 million from Health and Human Services.
DCT provides services to 12,000 Minnesotans with cognitive, mental, or behavioral health needs annually. The staff at MSH serve Minnesotans committed as mentally ill and dangerous, often at a risk to our own health and safety.
We need money. Without an operating increase, DCT will have 210 fewer staff across all of our programs - before proposed cuts from the House and Senate budget committees. With those cuts factored in, MSH alone will lose funding for as many as 118 positions.
Our hospital needs more, not fewer, staff. We operate with a 2.2:1 staff-to-patient ratio compared to 3.3:1 for similar facilities in other states. We have one psychiatric provider for 35 patients, a caseload nearly double that of like facilities.
Our hospital needs bonding money to complete a construction project designed to improve safety and treatment environments. Renovations to our treatment units and upgrades to the hospital will increase safety for all on our campus by eliminating blind corners and improving sightlines, upgrading our life-safety systems, and increasing therapeutic treatment areas.
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DCT and MSH serve all Minnesotans, but we can’t do it effectively without adequate funding. Please contact these legislators who will determine our budget. Tell them you support a strong mental and supportive health system: Reps. Matt Dean, Joe Schomacker, Tony Albright, Debra Kiel, and Jennifer Schultz, and Sens. Michelle Benson, Jim Abeler, Paul Utke, Karin Housley, Tony Lourey.
Tim Headlee, St. Peter, Minn.; Lori Olson, Mankato, Minn.; Anne Mehltretter, Mankato, Minn.; Mike Moriarty, Eagle Lake, Minn.; Lynn Butcher, Mankato, Minn.
The writers are on staff at Minnesota Security Hospital. Headlee is a security counselor, Olson and Mehltretter are registered nurses, Moriarty is in vocational rehabilitation, and Butcher is a learning and development specialist.
