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The Director of Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services was in Marquette recently discussing transportation for mental health patients. It is currently required that anyone involuntarily committed to treatment must be moved by an officer of the court, meaning law enforcement. With few mental health beds available in Marquette or Sault Ste. Marie, many of the trips are to southeast Michigan or the Grand Rapids area.
State Senator Ed McBroom invited local representatives, such as Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly, to visit with Director Elizabeth Hertel. He says the current arrangement has significant drawbacks.
Legislation passing out of committee and now before the full state Senate would contract with private firms to help with transport of mental health patients. McBroom says Senate Bill 101 removes significant liability from local agencies, at the county or municipal levels. He says many patients need to be medicated for their own safety and police are not equipped to handle the needs of such complex cases.
Hertel also expressed support for more services available in the Upper Peninsula. McBroom says he hears often from constituents that a family member has been sent downstate for treatment and they are unable to make arrangements for them to return home outside of a lonely bus ride, something that may not be in their best interests during a fragile time. McBroom says this issue is something that is difficult to explain to legislators from larger cities, where the problem doesn’t exist. Simply putting a facility “up north” isn’t the solution it seems.
Donnelly spoke about the meeting at last week’s Houghton City Council session and reported that it went well.
