Fayette County Commissioner approve additional psych care at prison
The Fayette County commissioners approved additional mental health service hours at the Fayette County Prison while continuing to prepare for the new prison site.
During Thursday’s regular meeting, Commissioners Angela M. Zimmerlink, Dave Lohr and Vincent Vicites unanimously voted to amend the contract with PrimeCare Medical to increase tele-psychiatric care by two additional hours weekly.
Last month, the county’s prison board voted to amend the contract with the prison’s health care provider to add the extra hours in an effort to reduce the number of mentally ill people in prison.
Prison business manager Jack Loughery said Thursday that the facility initially entered into the contract with PrimeCare for health care services two years ago. At the time, the county’s behavioral health department was to provide master-level psychiatric care. However, after entering into the contract, the department stopped providing psychiatric care services, he said.
Prison officials allocated that money to go toward tele-psychiatric care and hiring a part-time masters-level counselor to provide services in the prison, but Loughery said they have had a difficult time retaining a part-time counselor.
“The prison always wanted the masters-level position,” Loughery said. “We believe that will be very, very helpful.”
Loughery met with PrimeCare last week and came to an agreement to add a psychiatrist for two additional hours every week in the prison at cost of $21,215 per year. A full-time masters-level licensed professional counselor was also added. That person will work 40 hours per week at a rate of $77,600 per year.
In the event that full-time position is not filled, they will instead provide two, four-hour blocks of tele-psychiatric care a week at a cost of $175 per block.
The costs were originally budgeted in the contract made two years ago, but adjusted at 3.9 percent inflation, which Loughery said was covered with the money not spent on the part-time position.
In other prison-related news, the commissioners unanimously approved an intergovernmental cooperation agreement at no cost to the tax payers with the state Department of Corrections for consulting services on the construction of the new prison.
During public comment, resident William Jones questioned how the state DOC can act as a consultant for the county-planned facility.
Zimmerlink said she wondered the same thing, but said she was satisfied with and welcomed the DOC’s consultation because it came at no cost. She also noted the DOC will provide technical assistance through their engineers and said she did not feel there was a conflict of interest in using officials from the DOC as consultants.
“They’re going to provide consultation,” Zimmerlink said. “And then it’s up to us as commissioners to use that information as well as any other information, suggestions and practices that they or anyone else provides, and then make the best decision.”