County improves mental health program

GOLD BEACH — The Oregon Department of Human Services, which this summer threatened to take away Curry County’s mental health program if deficiencies were not corrected quickly, this week said the county has turned its program around.

Keith Breswick, the quality assurance coordinator from the State Department of Addictions and Mental Health, met with  Curry County commissioners on Wednesday and said the county has complied with the plan of correction from this summer’s audit and he now sees no risks to health and safety.

Breswick said he would be sending the certificate with an effective date of Dec. 9.

“Overall, they’re telling me in terms of the department didn’t get a very good review in July, they’re saying it’s night and day,” County Human Services Director Jan Kaplan said. “They don’t see any problems, health and safety concerns, and that overall it’s very positive. The staff has made significant improvements in all areas, the medical charts, access to services, follow up, very nice.”

Following the July audit of the Human Services Department, the state Human Services Department said “the program was found to not be in ‘substantial compliance’ with applicable Oregon Administrative Rules.”

“The Certificate of Approval issued to Curry County Mental Health Program as a provider of mental health services is granted a conditional approval for 120 days,” said the formal letter notifying the county it would lose the program if the deficiencies were not corrected in that time. That letter was dated Aug. 3.

Commissioners in August hired Kaplan, former Lincoln County Director of Health and Community Services for 10 years, to head the Human Services Department. He, Commissioner George Rhodes and Carol Raper, the clinical director of the department, had been working since to get the county department up to standards.

“I’m very pleased our new director seems to be moving the department in the right direction,” Rhodes said Thursday. “The board is very happy to get this kind of news from the state regarding the Mental Health Department.”

Rhodes said there still were some things the Human Services Department has to work on.

“We’ve had a lot of help from Jefferson Behavioral Health (JBH) and the rest of the people partnered, the Curry Hospital District, all of those entities, that’s what it takes with the financial setback we have to have a partnership to achieve anything,” Rhodes said.

JBH, headquartered in Grants Pass, is a mental health services organization and has a contract with the State of Oregon to manage mental health services covered by the Oregon Health Plan. It provides services through the Community Mental Health Programs in Coos, Curry, Jackson, Josephine and Klamath counties.

Kaplan said the state officials, who spent two days with the Human Services Department this week, did not go into great detail on the improvements the county made.

“When it’s a positive review, they tend to be less specific. It’s easier to be specific about a problem,” he said.

“They told us that medical charts have significantly improved, the oversights much improved. They were very specifically pleased with the positive and collaborative relationship that’s developed with Curry General and law enforcement,” he said.

“They thought we were doing a good job involving consumers of service, in planning and advising, and that we’ve made some additions to the staff and that’s really helping with part of the problems that had been earlier in the year. Staffing was so low we couldn’t get people in when we needed. We’re doing a much better job with that,” Kaplan said.

“I feel like we’ve begun making some very positive changes and it’s been very well responded to. The sheriff’s department has been great to work with, Gold Beach police, law enforcement in general,” he said.

“We’ve made some changes in terms of better able to work emergency situations, development of the hold room at Curry General, opportunities for us to work together. We’re better able to be more responsive to what people need,” Kaplan said.

“With the supplemental budget approved a week ago, I have authorization to add a children’s coordinator to help us serve kids with serious problems. That’s a program we’ll be developing over time. That’s another very positive development,” he said.

Kaplan said some of the work the department is doing doesn’t show up as being very dramatic.

“We’ve rewritten a lot of policies to make things more clear. The staff here have been working very, very hard in terms of creating a better organization. It’s creating the opportunity to do a lot better work. When the system is working better, you’re going to be seeing some good things come out of here,” he said.

“The staff who were here, it was very hard for them during the summer when there was a lot of negative publicity,” Kaplan said. “They’ve turned it around. I’m very proud of the staff here. They are working so hard.”