Creating a strategy this year to provide mental health services is a major goal of Lawrence Memorial Hospital, but it will need community help to accomplish it, LMH officials said.

LMH board members meeting Wednesday agreed to seek the support of the Community Health Improvement Project to start a broader dialogue on mental health services.

“I like the process because it needs to get away from being just an LMH or a Bert Nash issue to deal with,” said Lindy Eakin, an LMH board member. “It needs to be more communitywide.”

Pressure has been mounting on both LMH and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center to improve mental health services since the hospital closed the last vestiges of its inpatient mental health unit in May. Hospital officials cited cost concerns and a shortage of area psychiatrists who provide inpatient care.

The Community Health Improvement Program is a coalition of area health care and social service providers. Executive Director Janelle Martin said the group would discuss how it could help at a 7:30 a.m. meeting Feb. 2 at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, 200 Maine.

“I think there are certain sectors of the community that are discussing the issue now, but one of our goals would be to have one large discussion instead of several smaller ones,” she said.

Re-establishing an inpatient mental health unit in Lawrence is one of six goals the city’s Task Force on Homeless Services has in its draft plan to city commissioners.

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Gene Meyer, LMH president and CEO, said he hoped to have a new mental health strategy developed sometime this year. The issue was included in a list of items that board members were told the hospital needed to accomplish in 2005. Other items on that list included:

• Marketing to better reach area residents ages 45-64. LMH studies have found that segment of the population is frequently using health care services outside Lawrence.
• Developing a long-term strategy to provide services in Eudora and along the Kansas Highway 10 corridor.
• Recruiting physicians for the oncology, vascular surgery, obstetrics and cardiac care departments.