Unions fight proposed closures of CARE facilities in St. Peter and Carlton

Last month, employees at Direct Care and Treatment received a memo announcing the potential closure of Community Addiction Recovery Enterprise (CARE) programs at St. Peter and Carlton. In addition, the St. Peter CARE facility would be repurposed for use by the Forensic Mental Health Program to care for patients who have been civilly committed as mentally ill and dangerous. This proposal is part of the governor's supplemental budget. MAPE opposes this proposal.

The services provided by CARE include inpatient services for people who are chemically dependent and have a co-occurring mental illness, relapse prevention services and aftercare planning. These specialized treatment facilities alleviate the strain placed on jails and community hospitals and ensure that the bed space in behavior health hospitals and regional treatment centers will be given to patients with the most severe needs. Closing these intermediate programs will make it harder for Minnesotans to receive quality treatment for substance use disorder.

Local 1901's Jovae Priebe, a social worker specialist with the Forensic Mental Health Program, testified before a Senate committee, about the importance of CARE programs. "These services provide Minnesotans who are struggling with addiction the tools to succeed in their journey. Where will these patients get services now? How will we keep these patients and the community safe if we take away from the few beds already available?"

Notice of the proposal came as a surprise to Direct Care and Treatment (DCT) employees since last summer they were told that staff would be added, and higher quality programming and services would be provided at CARE facilities in Anoka, Fergus Falls, St. Peter and Carlton. This new plan does not align with the goal of improving treatment outcomes, reducing relapses and overdose deaths and avoiding preventable readmissions. Nor does the plan to simply add bed space address existing issues of staff shortages in forensics and other DCT programs.

Local 1901's Lynn Butcher, Quality Officer at the St. Peter Forensics program, states there is a shortage of beds for mentally ill and dangerous patients at the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter. "Opening more beds in a non-secure unit would force us to push forward patients who have not had their risk factors appropriately addressed. This could post great safety risks for patients, staff and the community. Creating a space for people not ready to be in a non-secure facility is bad policy," Butcher said during meetings with House Human Services Finance Chair Mohamud Noor and leaders from the Department of Human Services and the governor's staff.

Earlier this year at the non-secure north campus of the Minnesota Security Hospital, a patient was charged with second-degree murder of his roommate and choking a staff member who went to investigate. "Staff were at risk of being murdered that night. That is because we are putting people in a non-secure unit who are not ready. Right now, it is between who is more ready, not who is ready. It is really frightening for our staff and community," Butcher said.

There is a significant equity concern with the recommendation to close CARE Carlton, the sole women-only CARE program in the state. The all-women chemical dependency and mental illness treatment facility provides treatment specifically to the needs of women who have suffered traumas, providing them with an all-female staff. Both the House and Senate Human Services Finance Committee have included funding to keep CARE Carlton open, but the CARE St. Peter program is not addressed in either proposal. MAPE and AFSCME members participated in the informational pickets held at CARE Carlton and St. Peter on April 15.