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New mental health chief `nice fit' for county By SUSAN JAY Luck, timing, or both were at work for Jackson County's new manager of mental health services, who moved here last month without a job to be near family. It's also lucky for Jackson County, because Ronald Gardner, 55, has both management and clinical experience and has worked in many programs in North Carolina that are comparable to those here. "There are more similarities than differences in terms of both clientele and services," Gardner said of programs in both states. Gardner, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University, has worked in community mental health programs for 23 years. He's been on the front line providing outpatient treatment and behind the scenes coordinating and supervising programs in multiple counties. For Gardner, the examples of similarities in job and programs in both states are many. The native of Washington, D.C., has worked to bring mentally ill children out of hospital settings and into community programs, a change similar to that made when Oregon closed Dammasch State Hospital in 1996 and moved patients into supervised and independent living arrangements in communities across the state. North Carolina also received a Medicaid waiver from the federal government in implementing the hospital-to-community transition so it could stretch more out of each Medicaid dollar. "One impetus for the waiver was to develop a community system for children with supports and services to reduce the need for hospitalization," Gardner said. Oregon also has a federal Medicaid waiver for its well-known Oregon Health Plan, which has increased the number of low-income people able to receive basic health care by using HMOs to control costs. He is even familiar with the comprehensive computer program the county has been gradually implementing, which is designed for community mental health agencies to track patients, employees and a host of other factors. Gardner has done just about everything in the mental health field, including outpatient therapy with children, families and adults, consulting for the developmentally disabled, and alcohol and drug treatment. He also has managed large programs of 100 employees or more. In Jackson County, Gardner will oversee close to 130 full-time employees and an estimated 2,000 active clients, including 1,000 adults and 1,000 children. The county has been looking for a new manager for six months to replace Maggie Johnson, who was instrumental in guiding the department when it had to compete for the first time with other health maintenance organizations for the Oregon Health Plan contract for mental health services. "This is probably the most difficult management position in Health and Human Services to fill," said Hank Collins, director of the county's Health and Human Services Department. The county needed someone with strong managerial and clinical skills, a combination hard to find, Collins said. "He is a nice fit," Collins said of Gardner, who was interviewed extensively by employees, managers and administrators. "I've been impressed with the people I've met in terms of their dedication, expertise and knowledge of their field, and also the breadth of programs," Gardner said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA