By JIM MCLEAN

Kansas community mental health centers are sending a distress signal to state policymakers.

The association that represents the state’s 26 community mental health centers issued a statement Wednesday expressing “strong concerns” about the $30 million in funding cuts that it says its members have suffered in the past 12 months.

“The community mental health centers have taken one devastating hit after another over the last year,” said Kyle Kessler, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas Inc.

In addition to the 4 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursement rates ordered by Gov. Sam Brownback that took effect last week, Kessler said the elimination of two programs hit mental health centers hard.

Objections from federal officials led to the repeal of a state requirement that community mental health centers screen Kansans seeking admission to the state’s two mental health hospitals. Subsequently, a state decision to end a “health homes” pilot program cost centers that had staffed up to participate in it.

State officials said the pilot program, which was aimed at improving the coordination of care for Kansans with both mental illness and chronic medical conditions, was discontinued because it wasn’t meeting its health improvement objectives. Supporters said the program wasn’t given enough time to work and blamed the state’s ongoing budget problems for the decision to end it.

The federal government initially paid 90 percent of the pilot program’s cost. But starting this year, the state’s share of the cost would have increased by $13.4 million a year.

In its statement, the mental health association said the “reduction in treatment staff” forced by the series of budget cuts will increase the pressure on local law enforcement agencies and the state’s already overburdened mental health hospitals.

“The message that people need to hear is that budget and policy decisions have consequences,” said Mike Garrett, CEO of Horizons Mental Health Center in Hutchinson.

State officials should consider expanding eligibility for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, as a way to help restore funding to community mental health centers, Garrett said.

Brownback and Republican legislative leaders have blocked consideration of expansion for the past three years, arguing that it would be too expensive. They also have said that it would be unfair to extend KanCare coverage to poor but non-disabled adults until the state can afford to provide support services to thousands of Kansans with physical and developmental disabilities on waiting lists.

Tim DeWeese, executive director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center, said inadequate funding for the past six years and the state’s rejection of KanCare expansion have significantly reduced the capacity of a mental health system that once was among the nation’s best.

“Over the last several years it’s seemed to me that we have had a slow dismantling of the mental health system across Kansas,” DeWeese said.

Angela de Rocha, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, declined to comment on the centers’ funding concerns but said the agency has “enormous respect for its community mental health center partners across the state and does all it can to support them.”

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.

WICHITA- Former Wichita State University basketball star Ron Baker is also an author.

“You’re too big to dream small” is published by Kraken Books

The Scott City native is playing summer league basketball with the NBA’s New York Knick’s and will be attending book signing events in Kansas starting in August.

8/3/16, 9:30 AM – 1:00 PM, El Dorado High School,
El Dorado, KS

8/3/16, 4 PM – 7:30 PM, Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS

8/4/16, 1 PM, Scott Community High School,
Scott City, KS

8/5/16, 10 AM – 4:30 PM, Exploration Place, Wichita, KS

*No outside merchandise will be autographed*

After Ron’s book signing dates are over, shipping books is an option according to the publisher.

ATCHISON COUNTY – A Kansas man died in an accident just before 6:30p.m. on Sunday in Atchison County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1994 Chevy Camaro driven by Clarence A Nott, Jr., 63, Wetmore, was northwest on U.S. 73 ten miles northwest of Atchison.

The Camaro went left of center and struck a 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Jennifer A. Borgstadt, 32, Mission, head-on.

Nott was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Arensberg Pruett Funeral Home.

Borgstadt was transported to KU Medical Center.

Nott was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

 

#AMBERAlert cancelled for Norfolk infant- child located safely. https://t.co/DMBTNHRj9K

— NEStatePatrol (@NEStatePatrol) July 11, 2016

 

No additional details were available.

——

An Amber Alert has been issued for a 2-day-old child in Nebraska.

The suspects may be traveling in a Green 1997 Pontiac Transport van, with Nebraska plate number: 40 F703, according to the Nebraska Patrol.

The infant was last seen at Faith Regional Medical Center in Norfolk, NE. He’s believed to be in danger.

The child’s name is Bentley Tuttle. He has short, dark hair and was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, Winnie the Pooh diaper and a blue checkered fleece blanket.

Lacee Tuttle/Chad Raff suspects #AmberAlert of male Norfolk infant. Driving 1997 green Pontiac transport van 40-F703 pic.twitter.com/au1KxV1SRD

— NEStatePatrol (@NEStatePatrol) July 11, 2016

The child may be in the company of 35-year-old Lacee Tuttle.

She’s described as a 5’5, 195 lbs with brown hair, blue jean capris and a blue shirt.

Police also believe the child may be with 29-year-old Chad Raff who is a white male, 5’10, 150lbs with blonde hair, blue jeans, a brown shirt and a black hat.

The van was last seen leaving the hospital parking lot.

EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — A sheriff in southern Kansas says calm has been restored after dozens of inmates created a disturbance that included overturning tables and breaking security cameras.

Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet says the incident began after lunch Sunday when 57 inmates complained about the food and refused to return to their cells.

Herzet says the inmates overturned tables, broke security cameras, televisions and sprinklers, and barricaded a door.

The sheriff says officials, including a SWAT team, were able to make entry. He said Sunday evening that the situation was under control and no one was injured.

Herzet says an investigation is ongoing and charges will be filed against the inmates who destroyed property.

————-

EL DORADO, Kan. (AP) — A sheriff in southern Kansas says several inmates created a disturbance that included overturning tables and breaking security cameras.

Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet says the disturbance began after lunch Sunday when more than 30 inmates complained about the food and refused to return to their cells.

Herzet told KWCH that the inmates overturned tables, broke security cameras and televisions and flooded the pod. He says most police agencies from the county and the local fire department responded to the jail.

There were no reports of injuries.

Herzet says the situation was under control by Sunday evening, and the inmates had returned to their cells.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Wyandotte County has lost about 7,000 registered voters over the last two years while the state has added more than 10,000 voters to its registration rolls.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports Kansas has added 10,591 more voters since July 2014. But Wyandotte County, a traditional Democratic stronghold and the third largest county in the state, has lost 7,009 registered voters.

The decline in registered voters in Wyandotte County has occurred even as the population of the county has been growing, and nearly all of it has been among registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters.

Wyandotte County Election Commissioner Bruce Newby says the decline was due in part to routine maintenance of voter registration rolls that involves purging the names of voters who have moved away.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Crews in Wichita have been searching for a man who was reported missing while kayaking in the Arkansas River.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Wichita Fire Department crews spent Saturday searching for the man, identified as 24-year-old Brian Bergkamp, a native of Garden Plain. He had been scheduled to enter his third year of theology study at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

He was reported missing Saturday when the Arkansas River was swollen by recent rains.

Fire officials say two men and three women in separate kayaks were floating on the river Saturday when they hit churning water.

Officials said one of the women fell into the swirling water, and Bergkamp left his kayak to assist her. She and the other kayakers made it to shore.

ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Twenty-five years ago mass protests led to nearly 2,700 arrests outside Wichita abortion clinics. Now that city is bracing for a Summer of Mercy anniversary that its supporters hope will draw hundreds of activists.

The Wichita Police Department has spent months putting together a 60-page plan that aims to ensure everyone’s rights are protected and everyone is safe. The department has assigned about 100 to 150 police officers to the operation.

Police Capt. Brian White says police aren’t anticipating an event like the 1991 Summer of Mercy, but they have to be prepared for all possibilities.

The protest, slated for July 16-23, is being organized by the Christian fundamentalist group Operation Save America.

RENO COUNTY — A Reno County jury found a Kansas woman guilty of aggravated battery on Friday and Judge Tim Chambers ordered her to jail for one year.

Sarah Alcorn, 29, was found guilty of attacking her boyfriend after the two had an argument in November of 2014

The case involved her swinging a knife and cutting two of the victim’s fingers.

The jury didn’t agree the contention that Alcorn struck the victim in the face or that there was an actual criminal threat made where she allegedly threatened to kill him, so found her “not guilty” of battery and criminal threat.

The judge did set an appeal bond of $10,000.

Kansas Water Office

The Kansas Water Office’s Smoky Hill-Saline Regional Advisory Committee will hold a meeting to discuss current water issues affecting the region as well as the state.

The meeting will be held Tuesday, July 19 at 10 a.m. in the Hays City Commission Chambers, 1507 Main, Hays, Kansas. The main focus of the meeting will be continued regional action plan discussion and development within the Smoky Hill-Saline Region for the Vision of Future Water Supply in Kansas.

The agenda and meeting materials will be available at www.kwo.org or you may request copies by calling (785) 296-3185 or toll-free at (888) KAN-WATER (526-9283).

If accommodations are needed for a person with disabilities, please notify the Kansas Water Office at 900 SW Jackson Street, Suite 404, Topeka, KS 66611-1249 or call (785) 296-3185 at least five working days prior to the meeting.

• • •

As the state’s water office, KWO conducts water planning, policy coordination and water marketing as well as facilitates public input throughout the state.

The agency prepares the KANSAS WATER PLAN, a plan for water resources development, management and conservation. KWO also reviews all water laws and makes recommendations to the Governor and Legislature for needed legislation.

By ANDY MARSO

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a sweeping mental health reform bill Wednesday after portions that worried Kansas disability rights advocates had been removed. House Resolution 2646 passed 422-2 without substantial changes to the authority of Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness, or PAIMI, program.

The bill as originally introduced by U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, a Republican from Pennsylvania who is a psychologist, included language that sought to curtail activities of the disability rights centers that administer the PAIMI program.

Those provisions were dropped when the bill was extensively amended in committee. “Those are now out of the bill,” said Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Kansas Disability Rights Center.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Republican who represents most of eastern Kansas except for the Kansas City area, was among those who opposed the PAIMI provisions.

In a news briefing before Wednesday’s vote, she said the amended bill provided a more effective path for treating mental illness, which she called “a national problem.”

“There are few families in America that have escaped the challenge of depression or addiction or other forms of mental illness,” Jenkins said, adding that she had visited Valeo Behavioral Health Care in Topeka just a week earlier.

“This legislation will drive innovation and fight the ongoing crisis regarding the shortage of mental health beds in rural populations and provide the much-needed resources to those who don’t have access to the care they need.”

Among other items, the bill as passed creates an Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders within the presidential Cabinet, provides liability protections for mental health care volunteers and requires Medicare’s Part D prescription drug program to cover antidepressants and antipsychotics.

House Speaker Paul Ryan connected the mental health legislation to other efforts to prevent mass shootings and praised Murphy for his persistence in pursuing it.

“He has spent years working on mental health reform,” Ryan said. The bill has not been heard in the U.S. Senate, which has its own mental health legislation, Senate Bill 2680.

That bill cleared committee in April but has not been taken up by the full Senate. The House also passed a bill Wednesday authored by Jenkins that would repeal a portion of the federal Affordable Care Act related to health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts. House Resolution 1270 would allow consumers to use the tax-deferred accounts to purchase over-the-counter medications — a practice restricted by the ACA, which is commonly known as “Obamacare.” “

This regulation makes no sense, requiring individuals to see their doctor simply to get a prescription for common cold medication,” Jenkins said of the ACA restriction.

The bill garnered the support of 10 Democrats as it passed 233-164. It has not had a Senate hearing. Both houses of Congress plan to adjourn this month for a long summer break.

BILL DRAPER, Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Transportation officials in Kansas and Missouri are encouraging motorists to resist the urge to get in line at the first sign of an upcoming lane closure.

Advocates of the “zipper merge” method say using both lanes for as long as possible shortens lines in construction zones by up to 40 percent. They say it doesn’t get drivers through the zone any faster, but it reduces the risk of accidents and eases driver angst.

Missouri started promoting the technique earlier this year ahead of a heavy summer construction season. Kansas followed with a pilot project that started last week using electronic signs to warn drivers of an upcoming merge and encourage them to use both lanes.

Minnesota started promoting the zipper merge idea in 2011, and Washington followed in 2014.