Kate Dahlstrom spent years hearing families struggle to find care for their loved ones. She couldn’t figure out why.
But when Dahlstrom, who's president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness' Grand Traverse chapter, saw some data in 2021, it all clicked. “A light came on as to why we were having so much difficulty,” Dahlstrom told Michigan Public. The area is the state's "most underserved with regard to inpatient site beds and crisis residential beds.”
Dahlstrom, along with other advocates, is pushing for a proposed mental health campus in Northern Michigan. The urgency has only intensified with recent events, like the stabbing at a Walmart in Traverse City, Dahlstrom said.
“I think that was definitely an avoidable situation,” Dahlstrom said.
Northern Michigan should have “an absolute minimum” of 30 beds for every 100,000 people, according to a report by the Treatment Advocacy Center. Currently, the region has far fewer total beds and zero for youth.
The shortage means residents are often denied treatment or sent downstate, where there are more available beds, Dahlstrom said.
The proposed Northern Michigan Mental Health Campus would provide the region with 42 to 52 inpatient and residential beds, evidence-based mental health therapies and complementary approaches, like art and music, advocates said, and would cost about $22 million.
They proposed covering the cost with the state’s liquor tax funds, marijuana tax money and opioid settlement funds.
Because it's planned for an underserved area, the proposed campus may also qualify for state and federal funding.
Representative Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City), who represents the area where the proposed campus might go, said state funding for the facility is only “one piece of the puzzle.”
"It to me is still treating a symptom instead of going at the underlying root cause,” Coffia said.
Coffia emphasized the need for the mental health campus, but she also worried about the depth of Northern Michigan’s mental health crisis.
“We have a broken mental health system. And yes, it would be good to get, and we desperately need a mental health campus and youth and adult beds. And if we don’t fix those underlying root causes, we will not solve our mental health crisis in Northern Michigan or anywhere else.”
