Where can you go for inpatient treatment for mental health?

On March 16, a grassroots committee hosted the Worland Mental Fitness Fair at the Worland Community Center.

Members of the panel were Dr. Ralph Louis, psychologist from Oxbow Counseling in Basin; Janae Harman, owner of Family Circle Counseling in Worland; Mary Johnson, CEO of Oxbow Counseling in Worland; and Carol Bell, provisionally licensed therapist at Foundations Counseling in Cody.

The panel answered prepared questions that came from the committee and from similar events in Shell, Greybull and Cowley.

The Northern Wyoming News will be covering the questions on a weekly basis throughout the next several weeks.

Other than WBI — Wyoming Behavioral Institute in Casper — are there other locations for people to go and get inpatient treatment for mental health?

Louis: No, not in Wyoming really for people unless they can afford very costly treatment.

I know that, in my experience, there’s only two places where people in crisis, where we recommend they go, and that’s WBI or Billings Clinic up in Billings. Often for people who live in Big Horn County so often, it’s easier to go to Billings Clinic. And they can get seen quicker often there.

But no, we don’t have one. We do have a state hospital. However, the access to that is not something that the average person has.

LIGHTHOUSE CRISIS

STABILIZATION CENTER

Johnson: We have the crisis stabilization center here in Worland, which is known as the Lighthouse. And we have a new building coming soon. It’s a little different than what Ralph [Louis] was talking about, as far as psychiatric treatment.

It’s short term, acute mental health treatment, so up to 30 days. And if someone needs longer than that, then we’ll step them up level of care to one of those organizations that Ralph was discussing WBI or the state hospital, but it is there and it’s in our community. And it’s not so widely known as we would like it to be.

The Lighthouse is associated with Oxbow Center (formerly Cloud Peak Counseling) in Worland. If someone needs access to that, they go through the emergency room, law enforcement, they can call our office, and we can get you steps to go through so that we can have access to that.

There are four crisis stabilizations across the state, and they’re aimed to be regionalized for different locations. Oxbow Center is one of those, there is one in Casper and there are two others across the state in other regions.

Bell: I just want to say, when I was looking for help for my son, when he finally decided he was ready, my son was an addict, a self-harmer, suffering from a severe mental illness. And I know there are more than this, but I found four places in the United States that were willing to talk to me about seeing him and I was willing to pay at this point. He got turned away from a place in Boulder, Colorado, because they said they couldn’t deal with self-harmers. He got turned away from a place in Ohio, when they realized how much addiction was a part of his issue.

So I just want to say, to whoever asked this question, I just have a lot of compassion for people who are looking for support for people with mental illness issues, because it can be really hard to find help.

And also, most places provide voluntary treatment. And so if your loved one is unstable, and doesn’t want to stay in the treatment center long enough to get stable, there’s nothing that the treatment center or you can do to keep them there against their will.

If someone is severely mentally ill and needs to be hospitalized and kept, they either have to be in a psychiatric hospital or a a state institution. And they have to be deemed a danger to themselves or others. Being severely mentally ill is a danger to yourself and still that does not qualify as a reason to keep somebody against their will, which is sad and hard.

Louis: The fact that resources are not always easily available, don’t let that stop you from getting help. Because there is help available, it may not be to the level of need at the time that you approach help. But if we could work towards it, then we could find help for you. That’s a big part of what we do. And my job is to find the right level of help for people.

Next week’s question: My fear is failure. How can I successfully ask for help seeking complete mental health stability without support in my home?