FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — Earlier this summer, the Fond du Lac County Board voted in favor of closing the acute mental health unit.
Geri Vanevenhoven is the director of human services for the county and says their approach to inpatient mental health is changing with the closure.
"What we are replacing that with is an enhanced crisis service system," Vanevenhoven said. "So we already have a crisis intervention system here in Fond du Lac. What we are doing is adding full and part time staff to complete that."
She says that response by their team will remain very similar.
"They call crisis, they have a need that they need assessed," Vanevenhoven said. "And we do that whether that's in our building or a hospital."
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She says what will change is if inpatient care is needed, they will be transported to SSM Health in Fond du Lac to their 16-bed unit.
As for the acute unit after the closure, plans to use it are in the works.
"We are looking at a CBRF for crisis stabilization," Vanevenhoven said. "So what that would be is, it's not an inpatient setting, its not a locked setting. It's typically voluntary."
Currently, they are targeting an 8-bed capacity for the new community based residential facility.
County executive Sam Kaufman says transitioning to this new way of doing mental health will eliminate the units deficit.
"In the long run, the model will be a cost savings to the county," Kaufman said. "As to the dollar amount that is the unknown."
Specifics on staffing and official bed count which impact the cost will also be ironed out.
"All of those will be brought to the committee and to the board for discussion as we move through that process," Kaufman said.
Kaufman also says that it could be a couple months after the closure of the acute unit before the state gives them approval to open the CBRF as intended.
