Date Published: July 18, 2006   

Charleston professor to lead Department of Mental Health

By JOHN C. DRAKE
Associated Press Writer

A Charleston psychiatry professor who started his career with the state Department of Mental Health was named the agency's director Tuesday.

John H. Magill, a clinical associate psychiatry professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, will succeed George Gintoli, who resigned in June 2005 to take a job with a private firm in Florida.

He will take the helm of an agency under pressure to provide more inpatient psychiatric beds to cut down on waiting lists and relieve the burden on emergency rooms.

"I think he'll have a challenge in getting long-term beds up and running," said Joy Jay, executive director of the Mental Health Association of South Carolina. "We need those desperately in this state."

She said Magill is well-equipped to help the agency deal with the financial strain of previous budget cuts.

The agency, which runs 17 mental health centers and several other facilities in the state, said Magill is expected to begin in September.

The salary range for the position is $122,682 to $199,060, said agency spokesman John Hutto.

Magill, who earned his master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth Institute, began his career as a regional coordinator and project administrator with the state Department of Mental Health. He later founded Fenwick Hall Hospital on Johns Island, a hospital that served psychiatric and substance abuse patients. In Georgia, Magill was assistant director of the state Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and state director of alcohol and drug abuse.

"He has a great history with the mental health system in this state and the drug and alcohol system," said Mental Health Commission chairwoman Alison Evans. "He knows the problems that we face."

A recent report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness said that the reduction in the number of inpatient psychiatric beds in the state has left the mentally ill stranded in hospital emergency rooms and jails.

"I think it has gotten better, but there are still a lot of folks waiting for acute beds," Jay said, referring to beds intended to stabilize patients for seven to 14 days. "We need much more funding in order to serve folks with mental illness in the state," Jay said.

Evans said other challenges Magill will face include dealing with how changes in federal Medicaid laws affect mental health services and relocating facilities from the downtown Columbia mental health campus, which is being sold.

The agency has filed a lawsuit seeking to require the state to allocate any revenue from the sale of the nearly 200-acre campus to mental health needs. Evans said the agency is waiting for the state Supreme Court to hear the case.

The commission must recommend a salary for Magill to the Agency Head Salary Commission, which will review the recommendation and submit it to the Budget and Control Board for approval.

John Connery, former deputy director for community services at the agency, will continue serving as interim director until September, Hutto said.