Nathan Fawson knows a thing or two about trying to stretch a dollar.
For years, Fawson, executive director of the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, has labored to help the center provide increasingly costly mental health services, doing so with an archaic fee system that never seemed to cover costs.
“We predominantly serve the Medicaid population,” Fawson explained. “Yet our Medicaid rates have not been increased for nearly two decades.”
However, a pair of recent grants have been nothing less than a game-changer at SEKMHC.
Within the past two years, the organization has doubled its staff, with roughly 275 full- and part-time professionals servicing a six-county area.
With such growth — and a new funding mechanism to help keep up with costs — the Southeast Kansas Mental Center is not only looking to build a new headquarters in Iola but also secure more spacious environs at all of its locations.
SEKMHC also has offices in Anderson, Linn, Bourbon, Neosho and Woodson counties.
“One goal is to renovate existing buildings to be more ADA compliant,” Fawson said. “Finding contractors has been our greatest challenge.”
Plans are already in place to renovate a facility in Neosho County, and SEKMHC has spoken with an architect about plans for a new Iola building along U.S. 54 on the east edge of town. Iola’s current office is on South Sycamore Street.
As work proceeds, projects will be done with integrated care in mind, Fawson continued.
It’s been no secret, both for physical care and mental health care providers, that their patients often required treatment in both fields.
Fawson recalled working in a hospital in his early days, where physicians would note a large number of their patients suffered from mental health symptoms they were ill-equipped to treat.
“They traditionally would make referrals to mental health providers, but far too often, their patients would not receive that level of needed care,” Fawson said. “The same is true with my experience here. Their patients need help.
“There are numerous examples of how the clients we have served or clients they have served have benefitted from a more collaborative approach,” he said. “From a funding perspective, the outcomes of most interest are those of how our services can help lessen the expense of other services, such as inappropriate admissions to the hospital or emergency rooms.
“That is a driving financial force behind the CCBHC treatment model,” Fawson continued, referring to the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic designation SEKMHC earned earlier this year. In layman’s terms, a CCBHC takes a “whole-patient” view when treating a patient, including both physical and mental needs.
Thus, the importance of collaboration.
“With recognition that the more we as mental health providers can help support and stabilize individuals, the less likely they are to utilize higher level or expensive care, such as in-patient or emergency room care,” Fawson explained.
