Mental health head leaving

Spokane County has terminated the administrator of its public mental health system, marking the third departure of a top official in the past three years.

Edie Rice-Sauer, who has served as the administrator since 2004, left the position in July but will remain on the county payroll until the end of this month, according to the county’s human resources department.

Since serious budget problems surfaced last year, the county has been working to revamp the public system, which serves about 10,000 people with mental illness each year.

Faced with a $7.5 million budget shortfall last year, the county closed a new $5.5 million crisis center after learning that it lacked enough windows to receive a state license for extended treatment.

County Commissioner Mark Richard said that in recent years, the county system “lacked a really in-depth clinical understanding of what we needed and what was really cool to have.”

Rice-Sauer could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Her departure follows the resignation of the community services director in 2005, and the county’s previous administrator in early 2004.

Christine Barada, the county’s director of community services, has been named the acting administrator for the public system.

“The commissioners and I made the decision to move in some other directions in terms of how best to mesh with state and federal requirements,” Barada said. “I’m going to be moving into more of a managed-care direction.”

Asked why Rice-Sauer had left, Barada said, “I’d rather not go into that.”

Barada said the county is in the middle of a redesign of the public mental health system. The county expects to release a report on the changes to the system this fall.

In addition to the current fiscal challenges, the county faces increased state and federal restrictions on how it spends public mental health funding.

This spring, the county ended its long-standing partnership with United Behavioral Health, a California managed-care firm, and hired a subsidiary of Las Vegas-based Sierra Health Services Inc.

The changes are part of the county’s effort to demonstrate its fiscal responsibility, said Richard, who championed a voter-approved sales tax to support mental health programs last fall.

“We’re going to have to show to taxpayers that we have made appropriate changes,” Richard said. “What we’re realizing is that compassion needs to be met with more targeted expertise.”