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Reprinted from: The Green Bay News-Chronicle
http://www.greenbaynewschron.com/

April 7, 2004

Residents' knowledge of MHC revealed in UWGB survey

By Anna Krejci
News-Chronicle

The Brown County Mental Health Center has been the focus of county board meetings and candidate forums but University of Wisconsin-Green Bay students tested the public's knowledge of the center and found it lacking in a survey whose findings were released Thursday.

Thirty social work students conducted a survey that received responses from 490 out of the 1,150 people contacted.

Most survey respondents knew that the mental health center offered psychiatric care, but did not know it offers nursing home care and an intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled.

According to the report, 89 percent of the people surveyed knew the center treats adults with psychiatric problems and 78 percent knew the center provides adolescents with psychiatric services. Fifty-four percent knew the center has a residential care facility for the developmentally delayed and 32 percent knew MHC services include nursing home care.

While the MHC serves 12 counties in addition to Brown County, the report states that 88 percent of the nursing facility patients are from Brown County and 90 percent of patients using the intermediate care facility are from Brown County.

More than half of survey respondents, 58 percent, said they did not know the mental health center served out-of-county residents. The report indicates that 36 percent of respondents know other counties do not pay the total cost of care that Brown County provides to out-of-county patients.

Nearly 50 percent of survey participants said they personally knew someone who used the mental health center's services.

"The numbers in our survey represent real people," said senior Mary Sponholz.

The survey follows a period of heightened focus on the mental health center as the county is faced with building a new center or renovating the present facility. Other options include constructing a regional facility or contracting with private providers.

Recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Task Force, a group of citizens asked by County Executive Carol Kelso to study the county's options, are renovating the current facility, reducing out-of-county patients and reducing the facility's state-licensed beds.

Students encouraged residents to consider the survey's result in light of the April 6 elections and issues the county faces in operating the mental health center.

The survey revealed that 18 percent of the county's residents said they know who their county supervisors are. v "We were surprised by how few people knew their supervisors," said Kimberly Collins, student.

During a news conference students were asked to asked how to cut MHC services in order to balance the county budget.

"If you take away from one (service) it adds up in another," Collins said.

The criminal justice system or homeless shelters would likely spend resources on individuals turned away from cut MHC services, she said.

The students collected results for the survey in January and February and according to Candy Conard, lecturer of social work at the university, preparation for the project began in September.