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After more than a year of trying to bring mental health services to the children of Douglas County, ChristieCare has withdrawn plans for its two most recent projects.
ChristieCare’s halting of a planned treatment foster care program and a transition home for young adults in Douglas County are the latest in a string of canceled project plans, largely due to funding shortfalls.
When Mercy Medical Center announced the looming closure of its Behavioral Health Center in February 2007, officials at the Portland-based nonprofit company started to discuss the possibility of bringing services to the area.
Last June, Mercy approved a joint venture between ChristieCare and Telecare Corporation, which is based in Alameda, Calif., to bring children and adult mental health care to Douglas County. ChristieCare announced in November — less than one month after the BHU officially closed — that it could not acquire the needed funding to move forward with the BHU project.
Telecare officials are still working to finalize contracts with the state so the company can provide adult mental health services in the area, Director of Communications Shea McGuier said in an e-mail May 30.
ChristieCare had plans to bring an array of services to Douglas County. Original plans included using part of the BHU building to provide nine beds for children who needed short term care and offer a 30-day intensive psychiatric services program.
The company also hoped to provide behavior rehabilitation programs, the home for transition-aged young adults ranging from 18 to 24 years old and the treatment foster care program.
But as contract after contract fell through, and funding became further stretched, ChristieCare officials realized the project as a whole wouldn’t work, Executive Director Lynne Saxton said Friday.
“Children and families need an array of services and they need to experience those services with consistency,” Saxton said. “That’s what we were trying to build, and as each piece of the array fell through it became harder and harder for us to accomplish what we wanted to do.”
The state awarded ChristieCare with a contract to provide five treatment foster care beds, but with the lack of funding for the other projects, ChristieCare officials realized the project wasn’t realistic, Saxton said.
Staffing a Douglas County office for only one program — treatment foster care — was not realistic with the nonprofit company’s budget, Saxton said. The low state reimbursement rate for services results in climbing costs and additional financial strain for the company, she said.
“It’s a very tough time in mental health anyway because the system is underfunded,” Saxton said.
All hope for children’s mental health services may not be lost yet, though, said Janet Holland, Douglas County mental health director.
The mental health department, partnering with the local office of the Department of Human Services, is trying to encourage the state to reissue a request for bids for the treatment foster care beds, Holland said.
“We’re hoping the state will go back out for bids and will issue the contract to another company who can bring (the beds) to Douglas County,” she said.
• You can reach reporter Marissa Harshman at 957-4202 or by e-mail at mharshman@nrtoday.com.
ChristieCare’s halting of a planned treatment foster care program and a transition home for young adults in Douglas County are the latest in a string of canceled project plans, largely due to funding shortfalls.
When Mercy Medical Center announced the looming closure of its Behavioral Health Center in February 2007, officials at the Portland-based nonprofit company started to discuss the possibility of bringing services to the area.
Last June, Mercy approved a joint venture between ChristieCare and Telecare Corporation, which is based in Alameda, Calif., to bring children and adult mental health care to Douglas County. ChristieCare announced in November — less than one month after the BHU officially closed — that it could not acquire the needed funding to move forward with the BHU project.
Telecare officials are still working to finalize contracts with the state so the company can provide adult mental health services in the area, Director of Communications Shea McGuier said in an e-mail May 30.
ChristieCare had plans to bring an array of services to Douglas County. Original plans included using part of the BHU building to provide nine beds for children who needed short term care and offer a 30-day intensive psychiatric services program.
The company also hoped to provide behavior rehabilitation programs, the home for transition-aged young adults ranging from 18 to 24 years old and the treatment foster care program.
But as contract after contract fell through, and funding became further stretched, ChristieCare officials realized the project as a whole wouldn’t work, Executive Director Lynne Saxton said Friday.
“Children and families need an array of services and they need to experience those services with consistency,” Saxton said. “That’s what we were trying to build, and as each piece of the array fell through it became harder and harder for us to accomplish what we wanted to do.”
The state awarded ChristieCare with a contract to provide five treatment foster care beds, but with the lack of funding for the other projects, ChristieCare officials realized the project wasn’t realistic, Saxton said.
Staffing a Douglas County office for only one program — treatment foster care — was not realistic with the nonprofit company’s budget, Saxton said. The low state reimbursement rate for services results in climbing costs and additional financial strain for the company, she said.
“It’s a very tough time in mental health anyway because the system is underfunded,” Saxton said.
All hope for children’s mental health services may not be lost yet, though, said Janet Holland, Douglas County mental health director.
The mental health department, partnering with the local office of the Department of Human Services, is trying to encourage the state to reissue a request for bids for the treatment foster care beds, Holland said.
“We’re hoping the state will go back out for bids and will issue the contract to another company who can bring (the beds) to Douglas County,” she said.
• You can reach reporter Marissa Harshman at 957-4202 or by e-mail at mharshman@nrtoday.com.
