Department of Mental Health director visits Nevada Hab Center

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

By Steve Moyer

Nevada Daily Mail

Department of Mental Health Director Keith Schafer was in Nevada Friday, bringing employees of the Nevada Habilitation Center some good news about the direction the department is headed. Employees have been concerned for more than a decade about the future of their jobs, ever since the massive downsizing of such facilities the early 1990s.

"Habilitation centers have a future, and Nevada has perhaps the strongest hab center in the system now," Schafer said.

Schafer said that in the changing world of mental health treatment, there would always be people who need residential treatment and the department would always be there to meet that need.

The department has taken a new look at its operations which has resulted in some changes but the most drastic has come at the Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in St. Louis.

"The only hab center that really is affected is Bellefontaine in St. Louis," Schafer said. "That is changing and that may include going with a private provider, but Nevada is not affected."

When questioned about Benton Hall, which was slated to be closed in a five-year plan that is well into its third year, Schafer said it would continue to operate as it has been.

"Closing Benton Hall isn't on the radar," Schafer said. "It is still going to continue to be a part of the Hab Center."

Schafer said that budgets were tight and that it is a constant struggle to provide the level of care needed, but the department was committed to meeting the needs of Missouri's retarded citizens. He suggested that by working with private providers or with families who provide care on their own, to provide treatments unavailable privately, the habilitation centers could become a community resource that strengthens both the community and the center that serve it.

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