By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
GARDEN CITY, Dec. 6 Kansans want, need and expect more health services in their communities.
“That has been a consistent drumbeat,” Kansas Health Policy Authority Deputy Director Andy Allison said after hosting a town hall meeting on health care issues Wednesday in Garden City.
“We’ve heard it at virtually every one of our town hall meetings. We heard it two weeks ago in Pittsburg, and we heard again today,” he said. “It’s a continuing theme.”
About 30 people attended the two-hour forum at the Plaza Hotel.
The health authority hosted similar meetings in July in Wichita, Kansas City and Hays.
Allison was accompanied by Susan Page, a member of the health authority board, and the agency’s chief financial officer, Scott Brunner. Executive Director Marci Nielsen was ill and unable to attend.
Much of the discussion, Allison said, focused on the disparities affecting access to health care in western Kansas.
“It’s more than east vs. west, it’s ‘rural vs. urban,’ it’s ‘rural vs. frontier.’ And it’s not just primary care, it’s mental health, specialty care, dental care
the whole gamut. Transportation is a huge issue.”
Ric Dalke, executive director at the Area Mental Health Center in Garden City, urged the panel to delay adding oversight of community mental health services to the agency”s list of responsibilities.
Plans call for the health authority eventually assuming responsibility for the state”s mental health centers, nursing homes, substance abuse programs, and the state hospitals for the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled. The agency is expected to announce a timetable early next year for doing that.
Currently, the health authority oversees the state”s Medicaid, HealthWave and state employee health insurance programs. The state”s community mental health centers now are under the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
At a town hall meeting last month in Pittsburg, Nielsen said the health authority would resist taking on more duties until it had more staff. The agency has requested funding for more than 60 additional employees.
Still, Dalke used the forum to underscore his organization”s opposition to the move.
“We do not support the transfer of Medicaid-funded mental health programs from SRS to KHPA at this time,” he said.
That move, he said, should not be made until the health authority has a clear and deep understanding of the issues facing the mental health centers.
The Area Mental Health Center has satellite offices in Dodge City, Ulysses and Scott City.
Dalke also presented written testimony from:
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A foster parent who praised the services children in her care have received from Four County Mental Health in Independence.
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A 53-year-old woman who credited The Guidance Center in Atchison with helping her learn to live with her mental illness. The woman had twice attempted suicide.
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A young man who cited Breakthrough Club and the community mental health center in Wichita for turning his life around after several years of alcohol abuse, depression and suicidal thoughts. The man said his left hand was cut off after he was run over by a train during a suicide attempt.
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An 8-year-old boy who said he had been admitted to inpatient psychiatric units in Newton and Kansas City, Kan., at least eight times. The boy indicated he was angry at his parents who had abandoned him at birth. He lives with his grandparents.
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A mother and a grandmother whose children and adopted grandchildren have behavior disorders that make their care difficult.
Concerns raised during the meeting will be shared with the health authority board, Allison said.
The board meets next from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Dec. 12 in the Emerald Rooms V and VI at the Capitol Plaza hotel, 1717 SW Topeka Blvd. in Topeka.
Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.