Burchett, state to meet about Lakeshore

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and Tennessee Department of Mental Health Commissioner Douglas Varney plan to meet tomorrow afternoon to talk about the state's proposal to close Lakeshore Mental Health Institute.

The meeting, which was confirmed earlier this morning will be the first time the mayor and the County Commission – which also was invited – have a chance to ask questions about future plans.

“I wanted to get him in here as soon as possible,” the mayor said. “The commissioners have a lot of questions and the sooner we can get him in, the quicker we can find solutions.”

The mayor said officials will not vote during the 4 p.m. Meeting, but rather Varney will be asked “to give us the plan on how the closure will take place as they see it.”

Varney in mid-November announced that the state plans to close the facility by the end of the fiscal year, as part of a plan to outsource mental-health care to private inpatient facilities and community-based programs.

County commissioners say they were blindsided by the proposal and want answers. A number of them said during Monday's work session that they tried to reach Varney and have not heard back.

Now, they're asking the local legislative delegation to step in and see what it can do.

"I've talked with some people involved in mental health in Knox County and the question I've asked is: 'What's the plan?' and no one seems to know," Commission Chairman Mike Hammond said. "That isn't to criticize anyone, but if Lakeshore closes, we don't know the plan."

The commission, at the request of Commissioner Jeff Ownby, agreed to ask a number of state leaders, including Gov. Bill Haslam, to delay closing the facility for at least two years. Officials said they are concerned the community doesn't have enough programs to serve many of the patients who end up at Lakeshore. They also said they expect a rise of mentally ill in the homeless and jailed populations if Lakeshore closes.

Ownby calls Lakeshore meeting - early

Commissioner Jeff Ownby sun shined a meeting today – roughly 193 hours ahead of time.

Heh. Take that! (If you know not what I'm talking about, then you should have seen yesterday's county commission meeting debate about publicly noticing meetings.)

Anyhoo, Jeff has scheduled a meeting with employees and residents to talk about the closure of Lakeshore Mental Heath Facility. (Lakeshore is in his commission district.) The meeting is set for next Wednesday (that's Nov. 30 for you) at 5 p.m. At West High School.

Here's a story (click right smack here) by Sentinel reporter Kristi Nelson about Lakeshore.

Jeff said that some employees called him, hoping he could set something up with the City Council, County Commission and the two mayors. (Cause he's the freakin' man.) He said he couldn't guarantee they'd be there, but he'd put out the word.

(Last week, the folks met with state lawmakers. I'm sure we wrote about it, but I don't read our paper, so . . . .)

“It's a big hit,” Ownby said. “It's close to 400 jobs that will be gone. And the patients – the ones who can't be treated elsewhere – will end up on the streets.”

Well, that's what happens when people decide to cut costs at the expense of quality mental health care and public safety. Er, that's what I read on a blog somewhere, anyway.

And if it's on a blog, folks. Then it's got to be true.

Heh.