Longtime Hayes Mental Health Administrator Recalls 4 Decades of Service

By Christina Janney
Hayes Post

After 45 years of service, Walt Hill, CEO of High Plains Mental Health Center, will retire in January.

Hill, 71, has seen significant growth at the mental health center and pioneered innovation in technology that has expanded access to mental health services to thousands of rural residents of northwest Kansas.

Hill moved to Hays with his wife so he could attend graduate school at Fort Hays State University. He worked as an intern for mental health services as a student and then after graduation was hired to work as a therapist at Hadley Hospital in the psychiatry department.

“I had a personal interest in helping other people,” he said. “I had a brother who had a long-term mental illness.”

He pointed to a painting of his brother hanging on the wall and a group of his brother’s friends who supported him during his journey with mental illness.

On the opposite wall is a picture of his mother with his siblings.

He said: “They grew up very poor and faced with problems, so that was all I wanted to give back. I wanted to have a life of service and mission.”

Hill worked in management and developed programs for substance abuse treatment and crisis management.

In 1988, he left Hays to work at a children’s psychiatric hospital in Minnesota. Hale and his family lost Hayes and moved back within a year. Hill resumed work at High Plains Mental Health, eventually working his way up to director of clinical services and then to executive director.

When High Plains was founded in 1964, it employed three people and had a budget of $32,000. When Hill took over as executive director in 2003, the center’s budget was $7.9 million.

Today, High Plains has about 150 employees and a budget of over $10 million.

High Plains now serves 20 counties in northwest Kansas with about 100,000 people in its catchment area. This is the largest geographic area covered by a community mental health center in Kansas.

“Innovation in mental health is really important to keep up with people’s needs, especially in border areas, to make sure we can provide the services they need when they need it.” There aren’t many providers in villages and rural areas. Border areas,” Hill said.

As director of clinical services, Hill helped develop telemedicine services at High Plains in the 1990s. The service was in its infancy at the national level at that time.

He said telemedicine is critical to providing mental health services to rural Kansas residents.

Before telemedicine, psychiatrists traveled by car or plane to rural areas of the state. This greatly limited the time that doctors could spend with clients. The doctor can only see patients at a remote location once a month.

Hill said it was too expensive to rent a plane or pay a provider to drive for hours.

When the pandemic hit, Hill said telemedicine was a blessing. Some community mental health services have been forced to lay off staff. Because High Plains already had a telemedicine system, its providers were able to continue seeing clients.

During Hill’s tenure at High Plains Mental Health, many other changes were made to the state’s mental health system.

People with mental illness were transferred from hospitals to community-based treatment. Screening was implemented to ensure that people who were hospitalized should be there.

Many services have been developed to keep people out of hospitals and into their communities.

Because of the cost, HaysMed, as well as other hospitals across the state, were forced to close inpatient psychiatric units.

To partially fill this gap, High Plains Mental Health opened the four-bed Schuler Center for Psychological Crisis Intervention.

“People are saved from having to drive to Lorand, are able to see a psychiatrist and have medication adjustments and have a safe place to stay. That’s a significant improvement,” Hill said. Hill said.

Even as he prepares to retire, Hill has discussed with the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services the need to expand crisis services similar to those offered at the Shuler Center in the region.

Mentally ill people wait hours to days in emergency rooms to be admitted to state hospitals, Hill said.

Great Plains also established branch offices in Colby, Goodland, Norton, Osborne, and Phillipsburg.

In the 1990s, High Plains built homes for people with chronic mental health conditions. These included Woodhaven in Hayes and Colby House in Colby.

“I think we have the best techniques and science to treat people,” Hill said.

High Plains recently implemented a medication-assisted substance abuse program for people with opioid addiction. Clients receive both medication and counseling.

Hill said: “We had a dramatic but not enough reduction in notoriety.

There are more resources available to treat people in their communities than in government hospitals, but maintaining a workforce of mental health providers is a challenge, he said.

High Plains now offers robust community treatment in coordination with the court system. The program works with individuals who may be in and out of hospitals for court-ordered treatment. The team helps the individual with goals for stability.

High Plains Mental Health Center became a certified community behavioral health clinic during Hill’s tenure. The center has received grants to start programs such as medication-assisted outpatient treatment and community-based outpatient treatment and is able to continue these programs through Medicaid funding.

High Plains became the first implementer of a community-based mental health first aid training program. To date, more than 3,300 Northwest Kansas residents have been certified by Great Plains staff trainers in the program.

The center has also reached out to the agricultural community and now offers services to Spanish-speaking residents.

High Plains has expanded its services to include cooperative programs outside of one of the school districts in its catchment area. Students can attend meetings outside of school.

“The goal is to keep people from falling through the cracks,” Hill said.

In the broader scope of his career, Hill said he hopes to promote the acceptance and importance of mental health services and facilitate access to mental health services in rural areas.

Hill said he stressed to his staff that he did not want a retirement party or a “shenanigan” as he called it.

“What’s important to me is recognizing the lives we’ve impacted and the people we’ve helped, even the ones who don’t come back and say thank you,” he said. “They’re going about their lives. That’s what’s important. That’s what’s meaningful to me.”