Montana lawmakers moved a step closer Wednesday to making sure that mentally ill people have somewhere to go before they’re discharged from the state hospital.
Missoula Democrat Ellie Boldman Hill thinks a homeless shelter is not the place to send a person who’s just been released from psychiatric treatment, but that’s what often happens in Montana.
“In 2014, 23 of those folks that were admitted to Warm Springs, Warm Springs discharged into our communities directly into homelessness,” according to Hill.
And that, she says, almost guarantees those people will end up back on the state hospital’s doorstep.
“We pay for them to get treated, and then we pay to send them back and get treated again and again and again.”
Hill is sponsoring a measure banning the state hospital from discharging a patient directly to a homeless shelter. Providing homeless patients with transitional housing until federal benefits kick in, would cost the state about $60,000 a year. But Hill told the House Appropriations committee the state might actually save money, because stable housing helps keep people from being re-admitted to the state hospital later on.