| From a December
19, 2005 edition of the Lincoln Journal Star:
Though Hastings and Norfolk regional centers
will not close by next summer as originally planned, their
uses will be changing.
Hastings will provide adolescent services and a small residential
unit for people from surrounding counties.
Norfolk will drop to 60 adult patients by next summer, serving
a growing sex offender population and some people who need
long term care.
Lincoln will be the adult center, taking patients who need
short-term acute care and continuing with programs for sex
offenders and inmates.
According to Bill Gibson, the chief executive officer for
both the Lincoln and Hastings regional centers, the goal of
adult acute care will be to stabilize patients and move them
as quickly as possible out of the state hospital and into
community programs.
Though regional centers are not closing, the state is making
progress on mental health reform, creating more services in
local communities, said Ron Sorensen, behavioral health administrator
for Health and Human Services. The state this year is spending
about $23 million in additional money on community based services,
he said. Nebraska officials are currently trying to determine
how successful they have been at getting more federal Medicaid
dollars to help pay for behavioral health services, Sorensen
said.
Medicaid doesn’t generally pay for mental health services
in a state hospital but does help pay for services provided
in a community setting. One goal of mental health reform was
to increase federal funding by moving services from the state
hospitals into local settings.
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