Haines seeks behavioral health services and support from Bartlett Hospital in Juneau

The Haines borough sent a letter requesting immediate behavioral health support from Bartlett Hospital in Juneau, citing weeks-long wait times for services at its clinic run by SEARHC. As KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports, Haines has sought and continued behavioral health services since last December’s deadly storms,  but more clinicians from Bartlett could offer help.

 

Haines Mayor Doug Olerud wrote in an August 18th letter to Juneau’s Bartlett Hospital that there are community members in crisis and asked for behavioral health support and immediate assistance. 

At Tuesday’s Assembly meeting, Olerud said the borough has heard some residents are waiting up to two months for appointments at the SEARHC clinic.

“There’s been getting a lot of comments about the lack of behavioral health support in Haines,” the mayor said. “Our SEARHC clinic is down to one clinician there right now from the previous three. And people are, we’re hearing a lot of stories of five to eight weeks out before an initial appointment.”

SEARHC responded via email, and cited QUOTE “a longer-term workforce issue that the COVID pandemic has dramatically amplified.” Vice President of Behavioral Health, Eric Gettis  said SEARHC is actively looking to hire and fill those two vacant positions and expand telehealth staff, including working in partnership with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to provide some relief.

In the letter, Mayor Olerud said due ongoing issues related to December’s deadly storms as well as the continued threat of COVID, many residents are struggling to access the necessary professionals. 

He says the borough is negotiating with Bartlett hospital, which could offer  its services in Haines either in-person in Haines for a week every month, and providing care remotely or via videoconferencing.

“They have a lot of people that responded here in December in January, and they have a very deep fondness for the community and some of the connections they made. And they wanted to help us as much as possible,” Olerud said.

Bartlett Hospital’s Chief Behavioral Health Officer Bradley Grigg during a visit to Haines, agreed there’s potential for the Juneau-based hospital to offer services up here.

“So we spent four weeks here this winter, and developed some really strong relationships, not just in the community but specifically in the schools, and in first responders’ lives and those who were impacted by what went down,” Grigg said.

He said providing behavioral health services would be an expansion of ongoing care, and they’re ready to help.

“The services that we would be able to offer are ongoing counseling services through our clinicians, and psychiatric assessments, medication appointments, those sorts of things,” Grigg said. “So we feel like we can offer the outpatient services that are being asked of us.”

Grigg emphasized the COVID pandemic is an extraordinary stressful event, and people should not be afraid to seek mental healthcare

“On top of the pandemic, there’s economic challenges in our communities, and Southeast (Alaska). So with all of those changes come the heightened need, we see people using substances more whether that be drugs or alcohol, we see depression, anxiety increased to the point that folks who have never had to seek treatment or never sought out support, we’re seeing them do that. And I believe that, you know, it’s unfortunate, but Haines is no different than any other southeast town.”

Grigg says he expects negotiations will continue and services roll out in the next few months.

“The word that Mayor Olerud used was emergency. So to say that we’re going to plan for six months would be irresponsible. I think you will see our presence up here. the very near future.”

He said Bartlett services are funded by the state, grants, public assistance programs and patients’ insurance. If needed, they can provide services free, so cost is not a barrier to help.

Grigg also answered an outstanding question about $1.4 million dollars in CARES Act funding discussed last winter to support Haines’ disaster response, including behavioral health services, as reported by KHNS. He said ultimately due to legal and bureaucratic issues Bartlett Hospital was not granted that funding.

“Unfortunately, because of some other bureaucratic challenges and things we couldn’t get past,” Grigg said. “And that’s just the fact, the money was never given to us in order to pass through. So I don’t know where that money is. That money expired June 30. So those funds are not going to be used to support our efforts. Bartlett will be using its own funds and insurance reimbursement to support the work that we will do in your community.”