Butler County leaders delay mental health crisis center
Hamilton Journal NewsSep 29, 2022
Sep. 29—Butler County officials have tapped the brakes on an emergency mental health crisis stabilization center because more delineated plans and cost estimates are required before they can seek proposals.
He told the
"You want to do it right and not to say we're moving too quickly on this, no I think we've been moving comfortably," Rasmus said. "But I think we need to look at metrics and make sure the unit itself and the timeframe of the levy are appropriate."
Officials countywide have talked about this for years, and Rasmus conducted two rounds of eight focus group meetings. Attendees were from a wide swath of the community including police, judges, clergy, doctors, elected officials, about 80 to100, all tolled.
He has also studied five models so far, two in
Commissioner
Carpenter told the
"The commissioners have asked the mental health board to provide data from the entry points into the crisis stabilization unit," Carpenter said. "We want to make sure that we're building the right size facility to house it. We are continuing to look at a variety of solutions for homelessness and individuals with mental health and substance use issues who are in our county jail."
Commissioner
Commissioner
"We're going to have to open it on a small scale, test it, see what the results are and then see where the savings are...," Dixon said. "My anticipation how it will start is small as a test prototype and see how it works and we'll build off of that."
Over the past several years there have been many conversations about what such a center would provide. Early on it was being called a "drop-off" center for the homeless people who experienced a psychotic incident or caused a drug-induced disturbance so police wouldn't have to take them to jail.
More recently the definition has been expanded to a place where police and family members can take people with mental illness who are having an episode.
"There's that gray area there where they're really too sick to be on their own at home but they're not sick enough to get them in anywhere," Benson said. "It would benefit not just the police but anybody can drop somebody off and they just help stabilize them and identify what type services they need."
The commissioners made the decision in May to shutter the county nursing home and use part of it for the crisis stabilization unit. Rasmus said his board has hired an architect to determine the design and cost of retrofitting the building. The
This model mirrors the two facilities they viewed in
"It treats clients in an open area to address their crisis needs but also to allow them to socialize with one another without any walls and that helps because of the socialization piece, they get maybe some support, some suggestions from each other on resources," Rasmus said.
The MHARS board does not provide direct services to clients it provides funding to local providers like Sojourner Recovery Services who have their own facilities. Rasmus has said his board could provide services on a short-term basis but they must find an outside provider long-term, hence the RFP.
To pay for it, Rasmus said his board would have to ask voters to approve some form of a new tax levy to support the project. The board has two levies, a half-mill taxpayers approved in 1985 that generates
"We are slated for a levy next fall and that's still the thought process here, that levy would not only be for the crisis stabilization unit to support that but the community mental health system itself," Rasmus said. "We're just going over what that's going to look like, what type of levy, the size of the levy."
The commissioners must approve putting levies on election ballots for county agencies like the MHARS Board. Carpenter said she is not quite ready to ask voters for more money.
"We will see," she said. "I believe we can get the crisis stabilization center up and running before the commissioners have to decide whether or not to vote on a levy and at that time we'll have actual numbers in, the cost of operations."
The county has also discussed using some of the OneOhio opioid litigation settlement to fund the unit. The county has received the first installment of
A settlement has also been reached with
Rasmus said they have also applied to the state department for mental health and addiction for
Rasmus said once they issue the RFP it will take three or four months to vet the proposals before they can award a contract for the program.
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