OKLAHOMA CITY —  After narrowly escaping closure earlier in the year, lawmakers say a state-run mental health facility faces tough odds of surviving the next legislative session.

An interim Senate study is investigating the feasibility of continuing operations at the Pauls Valley-based Southern Oklahoma Resource Center, which currently treats 135 patients from all over the state who have mainly severe or profound mental retardation or other disabling conditions. However with the center carrying a price tag of $24.3 million to run annually, several lawmakers said cost cutting needs caused by the state’s financial position could doom the facility.

Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, who is one of the eight Senate members on the interim study, said the SORC plays an essential role in caring for some of most difficult to treat patients in the state. And while he supports keeping the center running, Wilson said he is pessimistic of how useful the study will be and of its effect on preventing SORC from being closed.

Sen. Jim Halligan, R-Stillwater, who also is on the study group, said it is still too early to forecast if legislators will continue to fund the facility because the state’s budget situation has yet to be fully realized. However, he said many important services might be on the table next session — especially if State Question 744, which would dramatically increase education funding, is passed.

“We always have to look at all programs across the state and look if they are effective and efficient,” he said. “... We heard about (the SORC’s) situation and its census, and it is something we need to look at ...”

Keeping the center alive

The SORC’s initial brush with potentially being shut down came earlier this during the tail end of the 2010 legislative session when language was added to House Bill 2456 to authorize the closure. But sharp criticism of the move from several groups and legislators, including Rep. Lisa Billy, R-Lindsay; Rep. Wes Hilliard, D-Sulphur; Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield, D-Ardmore, and Sen. Susan Paddack, D-Ada, blocked its passage and led to the creation of the interim study as an alternative.

Paddack said she remains “hopeful” the center will continue to operate and that more legislators will see the need for the facility. She said the interim study group’s meeting last month at the facility showed legislators a variety of reasons to keep it running. In addition, she said she also was buoyed by comments from Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, who is chairing the study and was among those who pushed for the closure last session, that he feels the decision of keeping the center open is worthy of review.

Added capital project costs

Potentially adding to the difficulties for lawmakers to continue to fund the facility is the state’s request to spend money on needed capital improvement projects that would be necessary if it is left open. Sheree Powell, director of public information and provider relations with OKDHS Developmental Disabilities Services Division, said the department recently submitted a request to lawmakers asking for more than $12 million worth of upgrades and repairs to the facility.

Powell said the requests have been submitted to the legislature in each of the past dozen years, but they have gone unfunded. Although she said many of the projects do not necessarily need to be completed immediately, she said they can’t be ignored for much longer.

Options if it closes

Powell said state DHS officials are already in the process of preparing plans for the possibility that lawmakers decide to close the facility. She said potential options include transferring an unknown number of patients to the Northern Oklahoma Resource Center in Enid and integrating patients into smaller community-based private facilities.

“We are working on plans of care for the individuals who live in the facility to see what their needs are and what type of services they need if moved,” Powell said.

Representing the state’s various private facilities, Judy Goodwin, executive director of Oklahoma Community-based Providers Inc., said the private sector is fully capable of serving SORC’s residents if the facility is closed. She said there are plenty of facilities throughout the state that have room and the ability to treat even some of the most severe cases.

Goodwin said her organization also has been working with SORC patients and their parents or guardians to discuss possibilities of transferring if the center closes. She said the process can be “complicated,” but talking with mental health advocates and other stakeholders is helping them see that they have viable choices, rather than a large state-run facility.

Wilson, however, said he remains “suspicious” of attempts to privatize services when he doesn’t see the proper justification to do so. He said eliminating state employees and their services is not worth turning over the responsibilities to others.

“(Unlike the private sector), the state doesn’t make a profit,” he said. “I just don’t buy it.”

Even if lawmakers decide to stop funding the center during the 2011 session, the closure would unlikely be immediate. Powell said she doesn’t know a specific timeframe, but she said the process of properly placing the center’s residents in new places involves many steps to ensure each is put in the best environment.

Trevor Brown covers the Oklahoma statehouse for CNHI and The Transcript. He can be reached at tbrown@cnhi.com.