Alabama's mental health commissioner is looking to reopen a former state-owned and operated psychiatric hospital in Mount Vernon, according to a WPMI report.
Searcy Hospital closed in 2012, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs and forcing patients to move to other facilities in central Alabama or into acute care, residential treatment and outpatient treatment programs in Mobile and Baldwin County. Many corrections officials said the closure was devastating for Mount Vernon, but also led to overcrowding in Alabama prisons and jails, according to the report.
But Jim Perdue, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health, has a plan to reopen the former hospital. He said he wants to repurpose Searcy Hospital to serve terminally ill and mentally ill prisoners and inmates, according to WPMI. He views it as a step toward improving mental health in Alabama.
Mr. Perdue's other plans to improve mental health in the state include moving the Alabama Department of Mental Health, from Montgomery to Tuscaloosa to save money and expand bed space, as well as improving and increasing patient care at Bryce Hospital, Mary Starke Harper Psychiatrics Center and Taylor Hardin Medical facility in Tuscaloosa, according to the report.