Wanting to show some solidarity with the rest of the Big Horn Basin — and save some money — the Park County Commission will help renovate a Worland facility that houses and treats people experiencing mental health crises.

Commissioners voted 3-1 last month to contribute $6,000 toward planned improvements to Lighthouse. The crisis stabilization facility is run by the nonprofit Cloud Peak Counseling Center; Washakie County actually owns the building and leases it to Cloud Peak.

Park County commissioners hope the planned upgrades to Lighthouse will reduce the tens of thousands of dollars it spends each year on patients who are detained or hospitalized against their will as a result of mental illness. Title 25 of state law says county governments are responsible for covering the cost of those patients’ first 72 hours of care, while the state picks up the tab after that. Holding a patient at either the Powell or Cody hospitals or sending them to the Wyoming Behavioral Institute in Casper or the State Hospital in Evanston is considerably more expensive than having them treated at Lighthouse in Worland.

Washakie County is adding two secure beds to Lighthouse that can be used to hold more violent or uncooperative Title 25 patients. Currently, those types of patients have to be treated elsewhere.

The changes will give the facility a total of eight beds.

The renovation is expected to cost around $100,000, with a state grant covering $70,000. Washakie County asked Park, Big Horn, Hot Springs and Fremont counties — who all have citizens using the facility — to help fund the difference.

“It’s something that we’ve invested in, that facility down there, and we, as in Washakie County, believe it’s a definite asset to the Big Horn Basin when you look at the cost of what it takes to send somebody to WBI or the State Hospital,” Washakie County Commissioner Terry Wolf told Park County commissioners on April 11.

Cloud Peak’s Lighthouse will charge counties $325 a day for a non-secure bed and $425 a day for a secured, locked-down bed — significantly less than local hospitals or WBI.

Park County Commissioner Loren Grosskopf said that should make for a quick return on the county’s contribution to the renovations.

“I mean, you could save $1,000 a day — and we’re talking about a $6,000 investment,” Grosskopf said, comparing Lighthouse’s rates to West Park Hospital’s. He added that, “even at $200 a day [cheaper than WBI], you’re talking 20 or 30 clients” to cover the county’s investment.

Commissioner Tim French, the lone dissenting vote, suggested the county could get those savings without helping fund Lighthouse’s renovations.

“Is Lighthouse not going to take Park County patients if we don’t give them $6,000? I doubt it. … Are they going to charge higher if we don’t give them $6,000? No,” said French, adding, “We’re the lion’s share of their patients; they need our patients to be successful.”

Wolf confirmed that the facility would be available to Park County patients regardless of whether Park County contributed to the renovations. And he said Washakie County would move forward with or without the help.

“If Park County does not want to do that, there’s not going to be any hard feelings on my part,” Wolf said, adding, “We just feel that this is a definite benefit that will help represent your constituents.”

French said he didn’t doubt the benefit, but expressed concerns about spending money on a building in another county and qualms about aiding Cloud Peak Counseling, which is a private entity.

In supporting the funding, commissioners Grosskopf and Joe Tilden both said they wanted to cooperate with the Big Horn Basin’s other counties; they noted how the four counties worked together and shared costs as they analyzed a recent overhaul of the Bureau of Land Management’s land use plan for the Big Horn Basin.

Added Tilden, “this eventually will work as a good thing for Park County, I hope.”

Commissioner Jake Fulkerson also voted to send the $6,000 to Washakie County.

Park County residents are the heaviest users of the facility, Cloud Peak Executive Director Mark Russler said in a later interview. Roughly 25 to 30 people from Park County are treated at Lighthouse each year, he said — though most of those patients are there voluntarily and are not Title 25 patients.

Russler said that, not only is Lighthouse more cost effective, it’s also a better place for patients to receive mental health treatment.

“That’s the piece that people are really missing, is it’s not a hospital; it’s a treatment facility that looks more like a residential home facility,” he said. “It’s just a much more caring treatment environment.”

Russler said Lighthouse also allows Big Horn Basin patients to be closer to their families with its Worland location, transports them back home after their treatment, creates discharge plans and makes follow-up appointments that are intended to keep patients from ending up right back at an emergency room.

He added that staffers at Yellowstone Behavioral Health, a different, Cody-based nonprofit that he also leads, really try to keep patients from being involuntarily committed and entering the Title 25 process. Yellowstone Behavioral Health assessed roughly 230 people in the Powell and Cody hospitals’ emergency rooms last year and only placed holds on about 26 patients, he said; most of the people assessed were released with some kind of a safety plan.

Russler said Lighthouse was completely full for a few weeks last year and generally had one or two beds open.

With a couple secure beds being added, “We think we’ll be able to manage” the Big Horn Basin’s need, he said.

The Park County Commission initially declined to provide funding for Lighthouse when the request was first made months ago. That was based in part on the concerns of Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric, who worried that Lighthouse would be constantly full with patients from around the state — leaving no room for folks from Park County.

Wolf, however, said Lighthouse will not be used as an overflow facility for the State of Wyoming.

“The focus is on the Big Horn Basin,” he said.

Russler said citizens from Big Horn, Hot Springs, Park and Washakie counties get first priority for admission. Fremont County began using Lighthouse some time ago, but even so, Big Horn Basin patients still take priority.

Those assurances appeared to win over a couple commissioners.