Michigan’s mental health system is fraught with local battles over funds and control, even as the larger system is stretched thin by growing demand and worker shortages
Caught in the middle are families and individuals who rely on the services for daily living
In northern Michigan, the Bergmann Center closed last month during what it characterized as a dispute over worker wages
A northern Michigan adult day program for people with developmental disabilities will reopen this month, following a complicated dispute about workers’ wages.
The Bergmann Center in Charlevoix serves about 70 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
It closed after last month over a dispute with North Country Community Mental Health, the agency that maintains Bergmann’s payments of Medicaid dollars. The dispute centered on direct care worker wages — specifically whether they included a Medicaid-funded bonus provided by the state to reimburse certain frontline public health workers.
Bergmann had said the wages were not being properly refunded; North Country CMH countered that those dollars had been appropriately dispersed.
The two sides met Friday, agreeing to take several steps that will reopen the center June 8, Brian Greene, a parent advocate who led efforts to bring the sides together, told Bridge Michigan.
Accounting staff from both North Country and Bergmann will meet starting Wednesday to reconcile invoices, he said.
As part of the agreement, Bergmann will generate a four- to six-month sustainability plan, which will include details for fundraising, and expedite its invoicing process to speed up cash flow.
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In return, NCCMH will extend the contract, although it gave no time period, Greene said.
The news is a win for parental involvement, said Marianne Huff, president and CEO of the Mental Health Association in Michigan. She said she worked with parents to pressure lawmakers who, in turn, pressured the community mental health agency “to the table.”
North Country CMH CEO Brian Babbitt was not immediately available for comment.
A larger tension
The dispute reflected larger tensions throughout the state’s mental health system as it struggles to deliver services in the face of increasing demands, limited funding and worker shortages.
The state has been trying to restructure how mental health care is delivered in Michigan, prompting a lawsuit by several of the state’s CMHs who successfully blocked the initial redesign. In response, the state has signaled its intent to continue the effort.
Snagged in the middle are thousands of families trying to get services for loved ones.
“It’s horrible,” said Greene, who said he moved to Michigan from Florida, where the wait was more than seven years to tap into services for his son, Dawson, a 25-year-old “social butterfly” whose multiple disabilities put his cognitive abilities at the level of a toddler.
Bergmann, Greene said, allows Dawson to connect with others outside his immediate family. As the dispute wore on, he said, it was apparent that “no side is blameless” when it comes to a shortfall in the state’s mental health services.
That includes parents who must be more involved with their child’s care long before a dispute leads to a program’s closure, he said.
“From what I see, there are solutions out there. Everyone has to calm down. No side is blameless,” he said.
This article first appeared on Bridge Michigan and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.