Excessive Overtime for Missouri Department of Mental Health Direct Care Staff Totals $48 Million

An audit of direct care employee overtime paid by the Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) found that the department paid about $48 million in overtime over a three-year period. Most was paid to employees at state habilitation centers or the state mental health hospital and occurred because neither DMH's, nor the facilities' policies limited the amount of overtime that an employee was allowed to work. In an extreme example, one direct care employee at the Marshall Habilitation Center worked an average of 253 hours of overtime per month during calendar years 2008 and 2009, in addition to . . .