Changes outlined for mental disabilities programs

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Compared to other states, Kentucky has a poor record of helping the mentally disabled find regular jobs and build stable romantic relationships. The University of Kentucky established this in a survey.

The state wants improvement. But it has people concerned that disabled members of their families will get pushed into jobs they’re not ready for or will be left with no options.

On Monday night, two representatives of the state came to speak at the Pennyroyal Mental Health Center. They wanted to allay the concerns of any locals whose relatives work at Trace Industries, a sheltered jobs program the Pennyroyal Center runs.

Treating dementia requires facilities

Sen. Pendleton says he’ll lobby for expansion of Western State
Part two in a two-part series

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Twenty miles north of Louisville, in Charlestown, Ind., the small St. Catherine Regional Hospital has a 26-bed facility for elderly patients who have mental problems.

The way a nurse describes it, the facility sounds like a far cry from a lush independent living center. But families, nursing homes and hospitals in Kentucky — including Western Kentucky — would be in worse trouble without it.

Often its patients have worked on farms or in auto shops or maintenance departments for years, said Amelia Johns, a St. Catherine nurse.

When dementia short-circuits their mental faculties, their bodies remain strong and even anxious. They can hardly sit still. Sometimes they tear out sinks, and one patient dismantled his entire bed.

“How he even took it apart with his bare hands is beyond me, but he did,” Johns said. “They’re pretty destructive sometimes.”

QuickInfo: Defining dementia

“Dementia” refers to several diseases that result in memory loss, mood changes and communication problems, according to literature from the Alzheimer’s Association. But they all consist of destruction of brain tissue, said Dr. Susan Vaught, director of psychology at Western State Hospital.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form. It results from protein “plaques” and “tangles” developing in the brain’s structure and killing off brain cells, the Alzheimer’s Society reports.

Usually it affects the newest memories first, Vaught said. This may explain why Tommy Hunt didn’t understand his father was dead.

Dementia: Falling through the cracks

Western Kentucky lacks resources for patients with most severe cases

Part one of a two-part series

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Roughly eight years ago, Stephanie Gamblin was driving her father to the coal mine where he had worked for 20 years. She asked him to navigate.

It unsettled her when Hunt said he didn’t know the route.

The family had noticed other signs of his memory decaying. Though he’d always been a handyman, for instance, it seemed to take him forever to finish tiling a cabinet for Brenda Hunt, his wife and Gamblin’s mother.

A doctor’s visit confirmed their fear: He had Alzheimer’s disease.

He stayed at home until 2010, when the family decided he needed full-time nursing care and sent him to Tradewater Health and Rehabilitation Center. Its location was ideal — a short drive for Brenda Hunt — but it soon seemed Tradewater was ill-equipped for dealing with his illness.

Pennyroyal Center taking over rehab

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Psychiatrists often see the same drugs paired with certain mental illnesses: patients with severe depression using cocaine, those with panic disorder becoming alcoholics, those with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder combining narcotics, Psychology Today magazine reports.

The drug addiction can result from the mental illness. For instance, someone with bipolar disorder might smoke marijuana heavily to even out moods.

It’s a way of quelling the symptoms — “self-medicating.”

Tim Golden, spokesman for the Pennyroyal Mental Health Center, said rehab programs typically focus on the addiction alone.

“But if you don’t treat the mental side as well, then you have the recipe for another relapse,” Golden said.

To reverse this trend, this month the Pennyroyal Center took over the rehab program at Western State Hospital. 

Pennyroyal Center’s care takes teamwork

Its staff integrates physical, mental treatment on an unprecedented scale

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Several years ago, Shirley Porter’s depression and physical ailments were preventing her from keeping a job — and thus from affording medical treatment.

She knew she faced the risk of diabetes, and she knew her blood pressure sometimes shot up too high. But Porter, now 49, felt so lethargic some mornings that she struggled just to brush her teeth and comb her hair.

One day, she told her therapy group at the Pennyroyal Mental Health Center her head ached and her arm felt a little numb.

The Pennyroyal Center was in the early stages of developing its primary care center. A nurse checked Porter’s blood pressure. It was 217 over 135 — high enough to cause a stroke.

Pennyroyal Center opening clinic to public

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Last year the Pennyroyal Mental Health Center opened a primary care clinic where psychiatrists could send clients who needed medical help.

With an expanded staff and a larger facility, the clinic is now swinging its doors open to the general public. Anyone who has insurance, including Medicaid, or money to pay out-of-pocket can get treatment there.

It will bring two full-time physicians, four physicians working on contract, an advanced practice nurse practitioner and a nurse care manager to the supply of local providers — a significant addition, considering this area’s shortage of doctors.

“We want service that anyone would be willing to go to,” said David Ptaszek, the Pennyroyal Center’s executive director. “I’ve got an appointment next Tuesday.”

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