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DPHHS grants bolster Lewis and Clark County's mental health crisis response

Independent Record - 9/21/2021

Sep. 22—The Lewis and Clark County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved the receipt of two Montana Department of Health and Human Services grants totaling more than $740,000 to bolster mental and behavioral health services in the county.

One is a nearly $618,000 grant to support crisis intervention and jail diversion efforts, including continued funding of the St. Peter's Health-contracted mobile crisis response team that responds with local law enforcement to mental health calls for service. The grant funding will also help hire staff for jail-based care coordination at the detention center, such as a behavioral health therapist, case manager and addiction counselor.

The county severed ties with Western Montana Mental Health in November of 2019 for contracted services of behavioral health specialists and a case manager at the detention center, asserting it made more sense for those positions to be staffed by county employees.

The efforts by the mobile crisis response team since its inception in November have resulted in 172 individuals receiving the mental health services they needed, with more than half of those not having to go through an emergency room or the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center.

Lewis and Clark Public Health Behavioral Health Systems Improvement Specialist Jolene Jennings said the organization anticipates the amount of calls for service requiring the mobile crisis response team will go up.

"We see the potential through communication with law enforcement that there are more calls available that the team can go out on," Jennings said. "We can see the numbers definitely increasing by a minimum of 15%, but probably more like 25% with the numbers that are available out there."

The news comes after a 25-year-old East Helena man died by suicide in the custody of the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center on Saturday, according to authorities.

The goal since November has been for the team to provide round-the-clock coverage, but Jennings said it has been difficult to find and recruit qualified individuals to the team and 24/7 coverage has yet to be achieved.

Additionally, the county is in the early planning phases of developing a crisis stabilization facility that would provide longer-term care, for upward of two weeks, to those in critical need of behavioral health care.

Such a facility would act as the third prong in a three-pronged approach to tackling the issue, the other two being the mobile crisis response team and jail-based services.

Jennings said the county is working with third-party consultant Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education to plan a facility that matches the needs of the county, and that she expects that planning to be complete within the next two months.

The shuttered Journey Home has been tapped as a potential site for a future crisis stabilization facility.

Jennings said the county and consultant are working "to make sure it's the right model for the need in our county and also to make sure it's sustainable. We do not want to have the doors close again. We want them to remain open."

The county's other grant award accepted Tuesday is a $125,000 installment of a $625,000 total grant package from DPHHS that runs for five years and is aimed at reducing the county's suicide rate and improving mental health literacy through LCPH's Suicide Prevention Project.

LCPH Community Health Promotion Administrator A.C. Rothenbuecher said the project also "will augment local providers' and emergency services' capacity to respond to those experiencing severe mental or emotional disorders and will cultivate a regional support network to increase access to care."

This grant funding lasts through Sept. 30, 2026 and comes on the heels of a three-year grant funding the same project.

The previous round of grant funding enabled LCPH staff to train more than 3,000 first responders, medical personnel, mental health providers, educators and youth in the county to better support people in crisis and those among groups at high risk of suicide, including adolescents, middle-age white men and veterans.

The county recently completed a behavioral health crisis system analysis that showed the leading diagnosis among those in mental health crisis is alcohol abuse.

"It really references how strongly laced the substance abuse of alcohol is throughout the systems of law officer response, the emergency room admissions and behavioral health providers and outpatients," Jennings said. "So that definitely was an eye-opener for us to see that as one of the leading issues of behavioral health in our county. ... This definitely rose to the top as something to consider during our future planning."

Rothenbuecher said this newly awarded grant will help LCPH expand the program into neighboring Jefferson and Broadwater counties.

LCPH staff set a goal of providing mental health and suicide prevention training to 50% of all law enforcement officers in the tri-county area by 2026.

The project will also offer military cultural competency training to mental health care providers.

Additionally, the local health department plans to use those funds to further its partnership with Helena-based Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies to better address mental health during pregnancy and postpartum.

"So we have multi-faceted efforts here," Rothenbuecher said.

County Commissioner Tom Rolfe applauded the public health team for its efforts.

"I believe that your work may be some of the most important we do in the county, and I encourage you to keep on," Rolfe said.

Need help?

Resources are available if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health. The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1 (800) 273-8255.

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