Randy Krehbiel
Tulsa World Reporter
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Oklahoma’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services could face sanctions and fines of up to $3.5 million for failing to meet the conditions of a March 10 consent decree, following the release of a report by three consultants responsible for monitoring the agreement.
The consent decree, entered in Tulsa federal court, deals with the treatment of people judged mentally incompetent for adjudication.
“We believe the lack of Best Efforts across multiple domains of the Consent Decree meets the definition of Material Violation of the Consent Decree, and that as a result, remedies whether financial or injunctive are appropriate,” the consultants wrote in a reported dated last Friday.
They note a compliance plan submitted Aug. 12 was more than two months late, incomplete and “marred by inconsistencies, inaccurate data, and questionable assertions throughout.”
The consultants say they’ve seen more focus and “hard work” since retired Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic became interim ODMHSAS commissioner in June, but that “the Decree requires more” than good intentions.
Among other things, the agreement required competency restoration therapy to begin within 60 days of it being a court ordering for a defendant, beginning Oct. 10. The timeline shortens to 21 days by next July.
ODMHSAS is subject to fines of up to $500 per day per individual, depending on how many days past 60 the agency is in violation, with a maximum of $3.5 million in the first year.
“This is a very damning report. It’s a very alarming report,” said Paul DeMuro, the lead plaintiffs’ attorney in Briggs v. Friessen, the 2021 class-action lawsuit leading to the decree.
“We are six months past the consent decree, for example, and … the department is still unable to put together a reliable data set of how many people are actually waiting for (competency) restoration services,” DeMuro said.
Conflicting wait time data
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs revealed that mentally incompetent defendants were being held for months or even years before transfer to the Oklahoma Forensic Center in Vinita for treatment.
During those waits, the prisoners received no real mental health treatment except medication, which they could refuse.
“ODMHSAS continues to work closely with the court-appointed consultants. We value their guidance to complete a Competency Restoration Plan that will comply with the terms of the consent decree,” an agency spokeswoman said in an email. “We appreciate the consultant’s recognition of our progress.
“Change of this scale doesn’t happen overnight, but the court consultants’ advice has been crucial to our progress. ODMHSAS is working to implement all recommendations and is committed to satisfying the best efforts requirement of the consent decree,” she said.
In their report, the consultants say wait times appear to be coming down but they can’t tell for sure because of conflicting and incomplete data.
For instance, the Aug. 12 report said the so-called wait list had been reduced to 105, but on the same day ODMHSAS told the consultants it was 146. On their own, using data supplied by the agency, the consultants found 187 people waiting treatment on Aug. 8
Similarly, the Aug. 12 report said the average length of stay in county jails for those awaiting treatment was about 60 days, but in a conference call that same day the consultants were told it was 156 days.
“Do we know what the actual number of people on the waitlist is and what their average length of stay is?” the consultants ask in their report. “The short answer is that … we do not.”
“We believe that the weekly data we now receive is more reliable than it used to be, but submission of … radically different (and internally contradictory) data on the same points calls into question the basic credibility of what we are receiving.
Understaffed department, facility
The report adds to the problems of ODMHSAS, whose finances became so convoluted earlier this year that the agency could not determine its financial situation.
Gov. Kevin Stitt assigned Slavonic and attorney John Settle to sort out the department. Earlier this month ODMHSAS announced it was cancelling or amending some 300 vendor contracts, creating a panic among providers and patients.
Friday’s report perhaps provides some clue as to why vendor contracts are being suspended and the agency’s finances are in chaos.
Simply put, according to the consultants, the department is understaffed, and the Vinita forensics center extremely so. The report notes that center recently announced hiring 20 new staffers for unspecified positions and plans to hire another 100 as soon as possible.
With 268 beds and another 84 set to go online, the forensic center had, at last report, only three psychiatrists and zero psychologists on staff. The report says the facility should have at least eight more psychiatrists to meet minimum standards for the current patient population and another three for the new wing.
While the additional staffing is expensive, the report says not having it is, too. The average stay for competency restoration should be 90-120 days but has been closer to a year in the not-so-distant past and remains at around 270.
“While we offer no excuses for ODMHSAS, we also believe that the Department’s administrative forensic service continues to operate with a shoestring staff and limited funding,” the report said. “Important changes have occurred, but the Department needs more resources.”
randy.krehbiel@
tulsaworld.com
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Randy Krehbiel
Tulsa World Reporter
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