The Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction has done all it can to put a positive spin on the decision to scale back operations at Logansport State Hospital, but it’s not at all clear the promised benefits will really materialize.
For Logansport and Cass County, it’s hard to find a silver lining to news that 355 people will soon find themselves out of work.
Mental health experts have been working for decades to move patients struggling with mental illness and substance abuse out of institutions and back into communities where they can be close to friends and family.
The fact is, though, that these efforts have had mixed results.
Certainly, some individuals have found success in community settings, but others have struggled mightily, and community after community has found the local jail becoming the de facto treatment center for individuals struggling to cope with daily life.
In their handouts to the soon-to-be-displaced employees, state hospital officials suggested that other agencies across the state would pick up the slack. They suggested that the laid-off workers might be able to land jobs with those agencies.
Maybe so.
Of course, that’s likely cold comfort to state hospital workers who have set down roots in Logansport. How many of those jobs will emerge within driving distance of here?
Critics of the state’s plan are already predicting that the money saved on housing patients at facilities such as Logansport State Hospital will be spent many times over by local communities and social service agencies working to deal with the patients left to make it on their own.
In the aftermath of last week’s announcement, local leaders did their best to put on a brave face. They pledged to do all they could to help displaced workers land on their feet, to find the training they might need to land new jobs and to access the social services they might need in the interim to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables.
Clearly, last week’s announcement was a body blow to the local economy. The Cass County community will need to come together to deal with the impact and find the best way forward.
In the meantime, we can only hope that critics are wrong in their predictions about the fate of patients displaced by this restructuring.
For Logansport and Cass County, it’s hard to find a silver lining to news that 355 people will soon find themselves out of work.
Mental health experts have been working for decades to move patients struggling with mental illness and substance abuse out of institutions and back into communities where they can be close to friends and family.
The fact is, though, that these efforts have had mixed results.
Certainly, some individuals have found success in community settings, but others have struggled mightily, and community after community has found the local jail becoming the de facto treatment center for individuals struggling to cope with daily life.
In their handouts to the soon-to-be-displaced employees, state hospital officials suggested that other agencies across the state would pick up the slack. They suggested that the laid-off workers might be able to land jobs with those agencies.
Maybe so.
Of course, that’s likely cold comfort to state hospital workers who have set down roots in Logansport. How many of those jobs will emerge within driving distance of here?
Critics of the state’s plan are already predicting that the money saved on housing patients at facilities such as Logansport State Hospital will be spent many times over by local communities and social service agencies working to deal with the patients left to make it on their own.
In the aftermath of last week’s announcement, local leaders did their best to put on a brave face. They pledged to do all they could to help displaced workers land on their feet, to find the training they might need to land new jobs and to access the social services they might need in the interim to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables.
Clearly, last week’s announcement was a body blow to the local economy. The Cass County community will need to come together to deal with the impact and find the best way forward.
In the meantime, we can only hope that critics are wrong in their predictions about the fate of patients displaced by this restructuring.
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