Photo by Deb Gau U.S. Sen. Tina Smith speaks to staff at Western Mental Health Center in Marshall during a visit Tuesday afternoon.

MARSHALL — Area mental health care providers are taking a team approach to helping southwest Minnesota residents. They’re making a positive impact, but at the same time it’s clear that people still face obstacles to getting the care they need, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said.

“You can hear today that there’s a real need across the whole continuum, from preventative care, the very early stages of a young person’s life, to somebody who’s in a crisis and needs to be in a safe inpatient environment for a while, and there’s a shortage of options for them too,” Smith said. “That’s, I think, what we have to work on.”

Smith visited Western Mental Health Center in Marshall on Tuesday and spoke with a group of employees and board members. Smith said she wanted to learn more about both the successes and challenges mental health care providers have had in southwest Minnesota.

WMHC is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), which takes an integrated approach to mental health and other care needs.

“Western Mental Health Center is a great example of this model of providing integrated mental health care for people, and it’s great to be able to see it firsthand and hear about their work,” Smith said.

WMHC Executive Director Sarah Ackerman said WMHC has been working together with community partners like area schools and law enforcement to help people get the care they need. Having WMHC staff be able to work with schools has made a difference for young people, she said.

“When we’re in there, we’re really able to see what’s happening with them,” Ackerman said.

Another community partnership has been to have a co-responder with Marshall area law enforcement. WMHC employee Jory Dove works with law enforcement three days a week, helping respond to mental health calls. Dove said he works to follow through with the subjects of those calls, and help them find the support services they need.

However, mental health care providers said they’re also facing a growing number of clients with complex needs, and a shortage of providers and inpatient care spaces. Providers said local behavioral health beds are often full, meaning patients have to travel hours away — or even out of state — to get care.

“The root of the problem is, how do we get people into this field?” Ackerman said.

Rural areas especially are struggling with a shortage of mental health professionals, she said.

Smith said the provider shortage is something she is working to address. Smith serves on the Senate Health Committee, and has recently reintroduced bipartisan bills focused on expanding the number of mental health care providers, and expanding access to telehealth services for mental health care.

“I’m working on legislation that would provide loan forgiveness for folks that get their training and then agree to practice in shortage areas, like the Marshall community or Lyon County,” Smith said.

Smith said she believed a federal expansion of mental health care funding that was passed last summer would help support some of the work WMHC is doing, like school outreach and co-responding services.

However, she said, “There’s also just a real need to address the lack of funding for mental health care. The way that insurance companies, and even Medicaid and Medicare, reimburse providers for mental health care needs work.”

“More than a generation ago, we passed a law that said insurance companies should reimburse mental health care the same way they reimburse physical health care. That is not happening,” Smith said. “One of the things I’m working on in Congress is to try to figure out, how do we crack down on that and make sure that these insurance companies, as well as public insurance, are really doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”