Supervisors decide on next steps for mental health services for Pearl River County

Gulf Coast Mental Health (GCMH) announced on July 16, 2019, that it had met with its Board of Commissioners and determined they would not have funding to provide services beyond August 11, 2019.

Vickie Taylor, interim director of the agency, said shortly after the announcement was made, that her understanding is that money has run out because at some point the agency stopped billing insurance companies, including Medicaid, for the services it was providing.

The Pearl River County Board of Supervisors held a specially called meeting on Monday (July 29, 2019) to discuss their response to the state Department of Mental Health on the issues at hand with the financial situation of Gulf Coast Mental Health Center, the designated community mental health centers (CMHCs) for mental health services in Region 13 (Pearl River, Hancock, Harrison, and Stone counties).

The Supervisors heard an update from County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin based information that he had been able to gather the previous week pertaining to the current and future direction of the GCMH. Lumpkin said that the state of Mississippi Department of Health had issued an ultimatum to GCMH that gave them two options that Lumpkin referred to as Option A and B.

Option A required GCMH to develop a plan in ten (10) days that would show how it would be financially feasible for GCMH to operate by getting commitment money from the four counties in Region 13 for six (6) months of upfront funding, hire a new Chief Financial Officer, hire a new Chief Executive Officer, and take a few other related actions. Option B would be to dissolve GCMH Region 13 and have the entities join another CMHC (region) in the state.