Mississippi Today
Private equity-backed Texas company seeks to reopen behavioral health beds in Jackson
A private, for-profit Texas-based organization is seeking to reopen St. Dominic Memorial Hospital’s behavioral health beds in Jackson, according to state Health Department records.
Oceans Healthcare has applied to lease St. Dominic’s recently closed behavioral health beds and open its own separately licensed psychiatric hospital in Jackson. Oceans submitted its application in late October.
In the weeks following St. Dominic’s decision to shutter its 83-bed behavioral health unit in June, advocates worried that people seeking mental health care would end up in jails or without help. Shortly after the closure, two hospitals reported having full beds and were unable to accept any more psychiatric patients.
Meredith Bailess, senior director of marketing and communications at St. Dominic, referred all questions to Oceans. Oceans officials declined to answer any questions for this story.
However, a records request revealed that the company has applied to reopen 77 inpatient adult psychiatric beds, with the remaining six licensed but unused. The organization’s application to the state Health Department says that the hospital is prepared to provide the same services to the community that were previously provided by St. Dominic.
The firm’s application also includes a letter of support signed by Rep. Chris Bell and Rep. Earle Banks, two Hinds County lawmakers, as well as letters of support from St. Dominic executives, including Interim Market President Kristin Wolkart.
“It is no secret that Mississippi is facing a mental health crisis due to a lack of resources,” the representatives’ letter reads. “By approving this project, the Department of Health will enable those in my community and all central Mississippi families in crisis to obtain desperately needed healthcare closer to home.”
Eileen O’Grady with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project researches the impacts of the growing trend of private equity firms investing in health care facilities. O’Grady said while it’s generally a good thing that more behavioral health beds could open in Jackson, she is wary of any private-equity owned organization getting involved in behavioral health care.
Massachusetts-based private equity firm Webster Equity Partners bought Oceans Healthcare in 2022. Webster Equity was founded in 2003 and is active in the health care industry. The organization’s website says it targets “companies with high-impact growth strategies that deliver the highest quality care.”
As of June, the total market value of investments managed by Webster was $7.4 billion, according to the firm’s website.
Private equity firms have shown growing interest in the behavioral health industry in recent years, according to a report authored by O’Grady. But because private equity firms are focused on turning a profit, patients often suffer as a result, her report concluded.
“When I think about what they do and what the business model is, I think it can be boiled down to basically one thing: Generate the highest return possible over four to seven years,” she said. “Usually that means trying to double or triple their investment over a couple of years … That is a really short period of time to make that kind of money.”
In order to turn that kind of profit, the firms have to make big cuts. That’s especially risky for behavioral health facilities, where vulnerable people expect to receive treatment. Instead, some private equity firms have hired untrained or unlicensed staff, have failed to hire enough staff or have neglected upkeep of facilities, according to O’Grady.
Laying people off and failing to pay adequate wages can lead to persistent understaffing, which can lead to hiring people with low levels of training, O’Grady said. At behavioral health facilities, this can create dangerous situations.
She said there are some situations where firms can provide the financial backing needed to improve facilities.
But she acknowledged that’s not usually the case. If the goal is making a huge profit quickly “in an industry where margins are already very thin, it is not improbable that some combination of those things can happen.”
“Generally speaking, what we’ve seen, especially in the behavioral health space, is alarming,” O’Grady said. “It is probably not a private equity firm’s fault that these hospitals closed, and it is good that they’re reopening, but I don’t think that private equity firms are the right companies to be managing behavioral health hospitals, and if they do, then there needs to be a lot of guardrails to ensure that these facilities are not just used to sort of line the pockets of rich people.”
Oceans has been increasing its presence in Mississippi. The first Oceans hospital in the state opened in Biloxi in 2019, and its second facility opened in Tupelo at the beginning of this year. Oceans’ facilities provide adult inpatient and outpatient mental health services, according to its website.
Oceans’ application says the hospital will provide Jackson and surrounding communities with multidisciplinary psychiatric treatment for depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia and various other mental disorders. The application estimates that renovation of the unit will be completed at the end of March.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1946
Dec. 23, 1946
University of Tennessee refused to play a basketball game with Duquesne University, because they had a Black player, Chuck Cooper. Despite their refusal, the all-American player and U.S. Navy veteran went on to become the first Black player to participate in a college basketball game south of the Mason-Dixon line. Cooper became the first Black player ever drafted in the NBA — drafted by the Boston Celtics. He went on to be admitted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Podcast: Ray Higgins: PERS needs both extra cash and benefit changes for future employees
Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison talks with Ray Higgins, executive director of the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System, about proposed changes in pension benefits for future employees and what is needed to protect the system for current employees and retirees. Higgins also stresses the importance of the massive system to the Mississippi economy.
READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
‘Bringing mental health into the spaces where moms already are’: UMMC program takes off
A program aimed at increasing access to mental health services for mothers has taken off at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
The program, called CHAMP4Moms, is an extension of an existing program called CHAMP – which stands for Child Access to Mental Health and Psychiatry. The goal is to make it easier for moms to reach mental health resources during a phase when some may need it the most and have the least time.
CHAMP4Moms offers a direct phone line that health providers can call if they are caring for a pregnant woman or new mother they believe may have unaddressed mental health issues. On the line, health providers can speak directly to a reproductive psychiatrist who can guide them on how to screen, diagnose and treat mothers. That means that moms don’t have to go out of their way to find a psychiatrist, and health care providers who don’t have extensive training in psychiatry can still help these women.
“Basically, we’re trying to bring mental health into the spaces where moms already are,” explained Calandrea Taylor, the program manager. “Because of the low workforce that we have in the state, it’s a lot to try to fill the state with mental health providers. But what we do is bring the mental health practice to you and where mothers are. And we’re hoping that that reduces stigma.”
Launched in 2023, the program has had a slow lift off, Taylor said. But the phone line is up and running, as the team continues to make additions to the program – including a website with resources that Taylor expects will go live next year.
To fill the role of medical director, UMMC brought in a California-based reproductive psychiatrist, Dr. Emily Dossett. Dossett, who grew up in Mississippi and still has family in the state, says it has been rewarding to come full circle and serve her home state – which suffers a dearth of mental health providers and has no reproductive psychiatrists.
“I love it. It’s really satisfying to take the experience I’ve been able to pull together over the past 20 years practicing medicine and then apply it to a place I love,” Dossett said. “I feel like I understand the people I work with, I relate to them, I like hearing where they’re from and being able to picture it … That piece of it has really been very much a joy.”
As medical director, Dossett is able to educate maternal health providers on mental health issues. But she’s also an affiliate professor at UMMC, which she says allows her to train up the next generation of psychiatrists on the importance of maternal and reproductive psychiatry – an often-overlooked aspect in the field.
If people think of reproductive mental health at all, they likely think of postpartum depression, Dossett said. But reproductive psychiatry is far more encompassing than just the postpartum time period – and includes many more conditions than just depression.
“Most reproductive psychiatrists work with pregnant and postpartum people, but there’s also work to be done around people who have issues connected to their menstrual cycle or perimenopause,” she explained. “… There’s depression, certainly. But we actually see more anxiety, which comes in lots of different forms – it can be panic disorder, general anxiety, OCD.”
Tackling mental health in this population doesn’t just improve people’s quality of life. It can be lifesaving – and has the potential to mitigate some of the state’s worst health metrics.
Mental health disorders are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death, which is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as any death up to a year postpartum that is caused by or worsened by pregnancy.
In Mississippi, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths between 2016 and 2020 were deemed preventable, according to the latest Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report.
Mississippi is not alone in this, Dossett said. Historically, mental health has not been taken seriously in the western world, for a number of reasons – including stigma and a somewhat arbitrary division between mind and body, Dossett explained.
“You see commercials on TV of happy pregnant ladies. You see magazines of celebrities and their baby bumps, and everybody is super happy. And so, if you don’t feel that way, there’s this tremendous amount of shame … But another part of it is medicine and the way that our health system is set up, it’s just classically divided between physical and mental health.”
Dossett encourages women to tell their doctor about any challenges they’re facing – even if they seem normal.
“There are a lot of people who have significant symptoms, but they think it’s normal,” Dossett said. “They don’t know that there’s a difference between the sort of normal adjustment that people have after having a baby – and it is a huge adjustment – and symptoms that get in the way of their ability to connect or bond with the baby, or their ability to eat or sleep, or take care of their other children or eventually go to work.”
She also encourages health care providers to develop a basic understanding of mental health issues and to ask patients questions about their mood, thoughts and feelings.
CHAMP4Moms is a resource Dossett hopes providers will take advantage of – but she also hopes they will shape and inform the program in its inaugural year.
“We’re available, we’re open for calls, we’re open for feedback and suggestions, we’re open for collaboration,” she said. “We want this to be something that can hopefully really move the needle on perinatal mental health and substance use in the state – and I think it can.”
Providers can call the CHAMP main line at 601-984-2080 for resources and referral options throughout the state.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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