Lake House: Mental health facility opens

Lake House, a first-of-its-kind mental health facility, opened in Polson on Friday, six weeks ahead of schedule.

After six years of planning, the new building is the result of a broad group of cooperation between State, local, Tribal governments, and Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center.

Gov. Bullock was present at the ceremony and called Lake House a “Christmas present” to the area, and praised the project as an example of public and private efforts coming together.

“It illustrates deep Montana values,” Bullock said. “We help our neighbors.”

Although there are other community-based facilities in Butte, Bozeman, Missoula, and Kalispell, Lake House is the only alternative to State care in Lake County, and the first facility to have the participation of a Tribe.

Citizens, health officials, lawmakers, and the major players from Western Montana Mental Health Center (WMMHC), Lake County, and Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes attended the ribbon-cutting.

WMMHC Director of Housing and Development Patty Kent said after years of planning, the project was now a reality.

“This absolutely warms my heart,” Kent said, addressing the standing-room only crowd in the common area of the facility. “This project has been a long haul…[and] struck me with the incredible perseverance and commitment of this community to come together to address a huge need.”

The idea is for Lake House to resemble a residential home that could be found in a neighborhood. Located on property south of Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center, the one-story facility has a modern look to it; a non-descript sign on the front of the building is flanked by a wooden fence along its border. Inside, the common room a high ceiling with windows lets daylight in beneath which sits an administrative station for the staff. Cameras are situated in the corner for safety of the patients and visitors.

“When someone is in an acute mental crisis, they don’t necessarily need to be in a hospital,” Kent said. “They need to be in a place that’s safe—therapeutically designed to meet their needs.”

Addressing mental health needs is important, an opinion voiced by several speakers, considering Lake County and the Flathead Indian Reservation continually deal with instances of suicide, domestic violence, and drug addiction.

The presence of Lake House for those in need of help might alleviate the social and logistical pressures up to law enforcement or State government, Kent said.

“Not only were our community members being shackled in the back of a squad car and taken 200-plus miles for care; our deputies were driving on icy roads; our counties were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. We knew didn’t work,” Kent said.

When an individual is arrested or detained by the State and needs mental health care such as drug treatment and therapy, in the past the only viable option would be for an individual to be commited to the State facility in Warm Springs. For Montanans to be treated, overcrowding is a source of concern among law enforcement and healthcare professionals. However, for individuals to be treated, law enforcement must deem them as an “extreme danger” Kent said, under jurisdiction called “emergency detention.” In such cases, the county is obligated to put a person in a facility.

Paul Meyer, former Director of WMMHC, noticed the overcrowding six years ago, before Lake House had any formal plans. He too wondered about State resources being used to detain individuals. Could there be an alternative way to treat patients: One that doesn’t require moving people long distances and using so many state resources? Meyer and others in the healthcare field began to wonder if what people needed was “community-based” care, Meyer said.

“Sending them to jail is not appropriate,” Meyer said. “The time has come. We don’t need to send people to Warm Springs. We need them in the community.”

Meyer added that Lake House was the result of many groups cooperating with one another. Meyer said the CSKT have been “great partners” from the beginning.

“Distress doesn’t see race,” he said.

Tribal Health Director Kevin Howlett agreed that mental health was an issue that affected all residents of Lake County and the Flathead Indian Reservation.

“While at times we like to be separate,” Howlett said, “the issues of mental health are not confined to one group.” He went on to say that Lake House can possibly help not only individuals, but family members.

“…So the people who will be coming through these doors, it will be a great sense of security, as well as their families who are probably in anguish with this situation that individuals find themselves in,” Howlett said.

Lake House will be the first mental health facility in the state built with the participation of a tribe, which Howlett attributed to politics not taking a role in the decision.

“It just goes to show [what can happen],” Howlett said, “if we can leave our ideology at the door and pursue the problem—and try to find a solution.”

Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker first heard about the project when he took office, three years ago. At the time, Lake House’s future was uncertain.

“The groundwork, the vision was there,” Decker said. Funding was a problem, he said, and he wanted to help do what he could as a commissioner because “we are all affected by mental health issues; whether we deal with them personally, or a family member, or friends.”

Decker hoped that Providence St. Joseph’s Healthcare and CSKT would be interested in partnering along with the county and “get the funding, get the building.” CSKT helped finance the $1.2 million facility along with the state legislature, and Providence hospital donating the land, and added with a $75,000 donation from the Providence Healthcare Foundation.

“We’ve accomplished the vision…we can be proud of what we offer here,” Decker said.

As of two weeks ago, it was unclear if Bullock would be able to make the trip from Helena, but he was at Lake House he said because mental health is an issue he hears from many people.

“Everyone’s heart breaks when [they] hear of another suicide, or when a warrior returns from battle and still has scars,” Bullock said. “Our breaking hearts are never enough.”

Bullock said that although citizens hear about the “dysfunction” of government at times, whether at a state level or all the way up to Washington, D.C., Lake County establishing a facility like Lake House “can be pleased that it’s non-partisan.

“We’re making considerable investments into mental health across the state. That’s dollars—that’s programs.” Bullock paused for a moment. “But that’s lives changed. You change lives person by person.”

Bullock thinks Montanans need to receive help “immediately... at right care at the right place…hopefully avoiding commitment because they can’t get the help they need.”

After Bullock finished, it was time for the traditional ribbon cutting, which at the Lake House on Friday would be a little different. Patty Kent invited everyone to stand around the table and cut the cake.