The Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Services Board of Logan and Champaign Counties recently received a $559,250 grant to implement a co-responder crisis response team that covers both counties.
This grant is included in the $90 million funding announced by Mike DeWine Aug. 28 relating to strengthening local behavioral health crisis response services statewide, including 37 regional projects to receive funding through the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
“Across Ohio, people of all ages and their families are seeking care in record numbers for substance abuse and mental health concerns,” Gov. DeWine said. “I am proud of the work we are doing in Ohio to make services more visible, accessible and effective for all Ohioans faced with mental health and substance abuse crises.
“By expanding access to a full array of crisis services, more Ohioans of all ages will receive the care they need in their local community so that they can recover and reach their full potential.”
The team in Logan and Champaign counties will provide acute mental health crisis de-escalation and stabilization to local residents within their own homes and in other sites outside a traditional clinical setting, the MHDAS Board reports.
The co-responder team will also evaluate the need for care coordination for individuals who received a Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) response in the last six months and are not already connected to care. This aspect of the program will address underlying personal and social vulnerabilities that may mitigate the likelihood of future crisis events.
Co-responder team members will include six peer supporters or case managers and two licensed clinicians that collaborate closely with the 911 dispatch centers and treatment providers in each county.
The goals of this project are to reduce law enforcement time on the scene, reducing the duration of the crisis event, reduce the potential use of force with the patient, increase immediate access to behavioral health resources, reducing arrests and reducing emergency department use.
These teams are associated with improvements in patient experience during and after the crisis, improvements in communication and collaboration between the policing and behavioral health systems, a reduction in the time it takes to successfully resolve the crisis, and improved rates of patient connections to appropriate ongoing care.
“Because of these investments, more Ohioans and their families will have a better response to their behavioral health crisis than ever before” OhioMHAS Director Lori Criss said. “With these projects, Ohio is taking a leap forward to reverse decades of neglect for Ohio’s behavioral health crisis care system, ultimately creating a more helpful future for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis.”
