SOUTH CAROLINA’S LOWCOUNTRY is expected soon to be home to the state’s third home for veterans. The $28.6 million facility will be a welcome addition in the veteran care system, which is taxed well beyond its capacity now.

The state’s existing veterans’ homes in Columbia and Anderson offer 310 beds. The new addition in Walterboro will include a 220-bed nursing home and a 60-bed assisted living residence. Even with the expansion, there will still be a waiting list of veterans needing care. For the Anderson facility alone, there are 650 veterans on the waiting list. There are 170,000 veterans who live whthin 70 miles of Walterboro. This is one of the many health care and social services in our state that simply does not have the capacity to meet current demand.

So we don’t dispute the current need for the new facility. What we and others question, however, is its placement in the state Department of Mental Health for operating purposes.

During Gov. Mark Sanford’s recent budget hearings, mental health officials said veterans and their families sometimes question whether they’re in the right place when they see the Mental Health Department signs out front. The answer for them is “yes”; the answer when it comes to the operation of these nursing homes overall is “no”. State law requires the department to oversee long-term veteran care, even when that care does not include mental health services. Perhaps that made sense long ago when the department was among the only operators of state residential treatment facilities. It makes no sense today for South Carolina to be the only state in the nation that houses veteran care in mental health.

Health care is an important benefit for veterans, promised to them for their service. It is however a distinct and separate mission from ensuring the mental health of all South Carolinians, a state function that is in a financial and service delivery crisis.

The federal government is providing $18.6 million to build the home. The State Budget and Control Board has approved $6.5 million for the project, and Colleton County is offering $3.5 million.

The costs to operate the facility, expected to be $7 million a year, fall on the Department of Mental Health. The cost of caring for a veteran at the new facility is projected to be about $126 a day. The federal government, the state and the veteran or the veteran’s insurance each pick up about a third of the cost.

The department’s annual budget of about $340 million has had to absorb $40 million in spending cuts over the past two years. Mental Health Chief of Staff Geoff Mason correctly notes that if the state is going to take on the obligation of a third veterans’ home, then state lawmakers must approve its operating funds. And they must do so without further taxing our overburdened mental health system.

This situation points out again the critical need to reform the structure of health care agencies in our state. Too many of our systems are ineffective and inefficient, structured as they are around old political boundaries and requirements. State resources should be allocated along clearly delineated functional lines that make sense, and funded accordingly. Continuing to handle veterans’ long-term care under the Department of Mental Health is a mislocation that must be remedied as part of an overall restructuring of state health agencies.