What is Gianforte’s plan to save Montana State Hospital?

I have been the executive director of National Alliance on Mental Illness Montana since 2008. Montana State Hospital is Montana’s safety net to prevent tragedy in adults with mental health conditions. It is terrifying for us and the families we serve to see the facility in a tailspin.

Admissions to the hospital are restricted to people that have had a mental health professional, county attorney and judge unanimously determine that there is an imminent risk of injury or death if the person is not hospitalized. While Montana State Hospital has never been perfect, the administration and staff have for decades risen to the task of preventing horrible situations from becoming tragic.

Montana’s publicly funded mental health treatment system is a “Hunger Games” for resources between public institutions, like Montana State Hospital and community behavioral health providers. Montana State Hospital has always been funded with almost no margin for error or unforeseen events. If there was an extra nickel, it was given to another entity that needed it.

While NAMI Montana and other mental health advocates have had our advocacy successes, we have not been able to alter the overall funding struggles of our public mental health treatment system.

Those systematic funding issues may or may not be addressed in my lifetime. However, I believe that Montana State Hospital would not be in the horrible situation it is now without the Covid-19 pandemic and the massive workforce challenges that followed. The hospital may have been due for a new administrator, but it would not have been an existential crisis that threatened the hospital’s existence and the lives of everyone who relies upon it.

NAMI Montana asks Gov. Greg Gianforte to tell Montanans his administration’s plan to save Montanan State Hospital. Gianforte is the only one with the position and power to save this institution that Montana families and communities rely upon to prevent tragedies.

The Montana Legislature doesn’t meet until January of 2023 and anything they implement wouldn’t take effect until the following summer or fall. This crisis will not wait until then to be solved.

NAMI Montana asks Gianforte to tell the public what his plans are to save Montana State Hospital because so many families and organizations rely upon it such as: hospitals, law enforcement, crisis facilities, mental health centers, group homes, jails, nursing homes, the Veterans Administration and others.

There is no one else that can serve the broad range of people receiving care at Montana State Hospital, but there will be a lot of organizations asked to if we let that critical state resource collapse. Governor Gianforte, please tell us all your plan to save it.

Matt Kuntz is Executive Director of National Alliance on Mental Illness Montana.