30 April 2024
CARLTON — Community Addiction Recovery Enterprise employees are fighting to keep their treatment facility open after receiving a proposal from the Minnesota Department of Human Services about plans to move resources and shutter it.
The DHS proposal would cut funding to CARE Carlton and add 16 psychiatric beds to the Forensic Mental Health Program in St. Peter, Minnesota. However, the move was immediately resisted by CARE staff and their union representatives, who picketed outside the facility and testified against the proposed cut to the state Legislature.
CARE provides inpatient chemical dependency and substance abuse treatment services to adults at five locations across the state. However, the Carlton location is unique because it has all-female staff and clientele. This provides a safe haven for women who have often suffered trauma by offering them a place to heal in a women-only environment, according to Goorhouse.
CARE Carlton has 35 employees and 16 clients. If the facility is closed, DHS would try to retain staff by offering them positions at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program in Moose Lake and other local DHS programs, according to an internal memo shared with the Pine Journal.
“I think they should be able to find another way to open up the mental health facilities for the forensic side, and also be able to keep the substance abuse facilities open,” said Tarajee Goorhouse, a nurse at CARE Carlton. “Because the problem is not going away — it’s just getting worse.”
The proposal to cut funding and suspend services from CARE Carlton and CARE St. Peter is in response to an urgent need to increase bed capacity and access to state-operated psychiatric hospitals, DHS said in a statement.
The proposed plan would increase state-operated psychiatric hospitals’ treatment in three to eight months, allowing DHS to transfer patients civilly committed as mentally ill and dangerous and admit more patients.
State Sen. Jason Rarick, R-Pine City, agrees with the needs outlined in the DHS’s proposal but disagrees that the services it would provide are more important than what CARE Carlton provides.
“The work they do is so good. We can’t afford to lose that in, in our area or anywhere in the state,” said Rarick, whose District 11 includes Carlton.
The DHS proposal to cut CARE Carlton is moving through the state Legislature as part of an omnibus spending bill. Though its future is uncertain, efforts to save the facility have secured enough political support for it to continue operations for the time being.
“It seemed to me like robbing Peter to pay Paul, where we were going to be just eliminating two really critical programs,” said state Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, R-Fredenberg Township, who advocated when the omnibus was being drafted for keeping the facility open.
The bill is undergoing revisions in the Minnesota House of Representatives. However, the legislation currently provides funding for CARE Carlton.
“I think some of these women are extremely vulnerable and I think the strategic placement of this facility has been extremely important,” said state Rep. Jeff Dotseth, R-Kettle River, whose District 11A includes Carlton. He supports keeping the facility open.
Companion omnibus legislation in the state Senate prohibits closing CARE Carlton without legislative approval, which passed Tuesday, April 30.
The House and Senate will likely pass different versions of the omnibus bill, so the Legislature may have to appoint a conference committee to reconcile differences in the legislation before it is brought back to the House and Senate for a final vote. However, because the House and Senate have provisions to keep CARE Carlton open, Rarick is fairly confident the facility will be protected when the final legislation passes.
The legislation will then be sent to Gov. Tim Walz to sign into law.
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