Over the course of the Clarion Ledger’s investigation into who allegedly assaulted and murdered 51-year-old Wendy Gilbreath, the Clarion Ledger spoke to Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade who said the task to respond to mental health related incidents sometimes falls on the shoulders of the department.
Wade said the task to respond can become a challenge when hospital behavioral units in the local area have closed. Wade said this can lead to a lack of appropriate resources to address mental health concerns in the Jackson area.
When St. Dominic's behavioral unit closed in June 2023 citing financial challenges, Wade stated at the time how the unit closure would negatively impact people with mental health issues in the Jackson area.
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Wade said the “negative impact” is now playing out.
"We used to have a lot of individuals around the Lakeland Drive Corridor in North Jackson that were suffering from mental illness. Now, we are seeing a larger population of individuals suffering from mental illness in South Jackson, specifically in the Raymond Road area, Highway 18 area and Greenway area. There are even some encampments around Lowe’s," Wade said. "We can see the difference."
Merit Health Central is about a 40-minute walking distance from each of the four locations specified by Wade. That is where Gilbreath was murdered, allegedly by a fellow mental health patient with a history of admission to mental health facilities throughout the state. The alleged murderer was from Diamondhead, on the Mississippi Coast.
Wade said it was telling is that many of the people with mental illness the department encounters “are not from Jackson.”
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On March 6, the Jackson Police Department issued a media release stating officers responded March 5 to Merit Health Central in reference to an assault.
Police told the Clarion Ledger and other media outlets a white adult male patient assaulted a white adult female patient on the hospital's sixth floor, which is designated for patients receiving psychiatric treatment. The female patient was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.
The Hinds County Coroner’s Office identified Gilbreath, a Texas native, as the victim. Officials never identified the assailant. According to the Clarion Ledger’s reporting, the man accused of killing Gilbreath is not from Jackson either.
“Sometimes, people we come in contact with are from neighboring counties and neighboring states. We've also had them as far away as Detroit, Michigan, that are now here in the city of Jackson. How did they get here? Why did they choose Jackson, Mississippi, out of all places? You know, that's a very serious question that we have to address. It's not a cure for mental illness to bring them to Jackson and put them out. You are not helping that person,” Wade said.
Gilbreath's death is not the first time the Jackson Police Department has had to deal with violence at Merit Health Central. Another incident occurred at the hospital around mid-February of this year.
On Feb. 16, Corporal Anthony Johnson with the Jackson Police Department sustained severe injuries after being hit by a suspect’s vehicle in the emergency room parking lot of Merit Health Central.
Police said Nicholas Glover, the suspect, refused to leave the area leading to Merit Health calling law enforcement. Glover was reportedly “ suffering from a mental episode .” According to police, Johnson was struck by the “high-speed” moving car, “ flew into the air ” and came down on Glover’s windshield.
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Wade told the Clarion Ledger in late March that Johnson was still out of the office recovering from his injuries. By Aug. 13, Wade said Johnson had fully recovered after receiving proper medical assistance and returned to duty a couple of months ago.
Wade said Johnson is a part of the Jackson Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team, which consist of 30 to 40 trained officers who respond to mental health related calls. This intervention team works alongside Hinds Behavioral Health.
And while Wade believes both of Gilbreath and Johnson's situations were “tragic” in their respective ways, he said Gilbreath's death is quite different.
“The situation at Merit Health was very, very concerning to me. And I cannot speak to their protocol at the hospital. But that situation at Merit Health was a very unique situation … I have not seen anything like that happen during my career. And you're talking about a career that started back in 1995 here at the Jackson Police Department,” Wade said.
Wade added that Merit Health is faced with a challenge of taking on a “heavy load due to the closure of units” and also having no police force at the hospital.
Alicia Carpenter, director of marketing at Merit Health, confirmed to the Clarion Ledger that security officers are present on Merit Health Central's campus 24/7 to "help ensure the safety of our patients and team." Carpenter continued stating the hospital's security group works closely with the Jackson Police Department.
"Recently, the Jackson City Council approved the Jackson PD's plans to lease space in our adjacent Medical Office Building. This means, in addition to our security officers, the Jackson PD will also have a presence on our campus," Carpenter said in an Aug. 14 emailed statement.
Merit Health is one of three locations that are staffed with security officers, Wade said. This means when a crime is committed at a hospital such as Merit Health, more “manpower” from the Jackson Police Department or the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department is needed to “mitigate and investigate” the situation.
St. Dominic and Baptist Medical Center are the other two locations with security officers. University of Mississippi Medical Center has their own police department, Wade said.
“I know (Merit Health) has a very daunting task with the amount of people that are now being sent to that location or suffer mental illness. And it is, to me, very unfair to them because we have a lot of facilities around the City of Jackson and in the metro area that should be taken on that duty and responsibility as well.”
This narrative could change if a Texas-based company called Oceans Healthcare succeeds in reopening the shuttered St. Dominic’s psychiatric unit; however, a lawsuit is delaying the process.
According to court filed documents, Oceans' plan is to offer acute adult psychiatric services using the existing 77 inpatient beds previously offered by St. Dominic. Oceans had applied to lease the unit as a separately licensed psychiatric hospital.
But Merit Health is suing Oceans Behavioral Health of Jackson, whose parent corporation is Oceans Healthcare, and St. Dominic, arguing that they aren’t following the proper procedures to re-open the behavioral health beds. Merit Health believes the route being taken will place more burden on its facility.
Carpenter wrote via email to the Clarion Ledger that Merit Health is "adamantly opposed to Oceans Behavioral Health's certificate of need application to open a new behavioral health unit at St. Dominic's Hospital."
Carpenter said while Merit Health has invested in behavioral health services for "the good of the community," Oceans plan will be duplicating "existing services available to insured patients while ignoring the underserved and indigent patient population."
Part of Carpenter statement read as: "If a new behavioral health hospital is opened - just ten miles away from Merit Health Central - it will only serve to duplicate and disrupt already available mental health services and available staff in a way that is detrimental to the delivery of care, and it will not improve access to these services for people in our community. In fact, St. Dominic's shut down its behavioral health unit just last year. At the same time, Merit Health invested approximately $3.4 million to expand behavioral health services for the community, adding 20 new adult beds, 20 new adolescent beds, and 10 new observation beds. A large number of the people who need mental health services in our community are low income or Medicaid beneficiaries. But Oceans does not plan to serve these patients and instead would focus on serving commercially insured patients, disproportionately affecting and potentially harming low-income patients and existing behavioral health providers."
The Clarion Ledger also reached out to Oceans Healthcare about whether the expected services will provide support to local community. Oceans Healthcare told the Clarion Ledger that believes in “expanding access, not creating barriers,” citing existing Oceans Healthcare Mississippi locations in Biloxi and Tupelo.
Part of the statement from Oceans Healthcare reads: “Like most states, Mississippi’s mental health care system has been in crisis for several years. That crisis is particularly acute in Jackson, where patients in need of mental health support are too often forced to seek care in less-than-ideal settings like an emergency room or the jail system. For many years, St. Dominic Memorial Hospital’s behavioral health services were a crucial lifeline for the community – neighbors, friends, and family. When those inpatient beds were no longer available it caused a ripple effect, reducing availability of services in an already underserved region. Oceans Healthcare stands ready to help address that need by reopening the behavioral health hospital formerly operated by St. Dominic’s. We look forward to employing the caregivers and support team needed for its operation, and to delivering the services that are so desperately needed. Barring any delays, we anticipate opening sometime this year, including adding outpatient services that were not available previously.”
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Despite the mental health predicament the Jackson area is faced with, Wade said the morale of the police department has not changed.
Wade said officers are “putting their lives on the line every single day” so that the citizens of Jackson can have a "better quality of life."
“I will never back away from these issues. We are going to lean into them. I'm willing to have town hall meetings, community meetings, whatever I need to do on the city, county, or state level to get more resources here in the city of Jackson to address this issue of mental health issues in our community. We as a city, we as a county, we as a state have to take a different approach when it comes to mental illness,” Wade said. “It is not a crime to suffer from mental illness.”
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson police chief: Mental health patients from across country are finding way to Jackson
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