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Boards discuss merging of agencies this year
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services boards are discussing possible merger of their agencies by the end of the year.
Merging the two boards has been talked about off and on for several years, officials said.
But Friday, the first official meeting between representatives of the boards took place.
The organizational meeting was initiated by Ronald K. Chordas, ADAS board chairman, in a letter to Laura Lyden, mental-health board chairwoman, seeking a meeting to discuss the merger possibility.
Chordas said the ADAS board does not know if merging is a viable option to be considered during a time when need is increasing and financial resources are decreasing. Still, he said a meeting between the two boards would be beneficial to ADAS.
Mahoning County is one of just three counties in Ohio in which the mental-health and alcohol- and drug-addiction boards have not merged. The others are Lorain and Butler, said Ronald Marian, the mental-health board’s executive director.
“The state is pushing regionalization. We [the mental-health board] have done a lot of collaborating with Trumbull and Columbiana counties that has been well-received at the state level,” Marian said.
The bottom line is, he said, “If you collaborate, the state will send you money. If you don’t, it won’t.”
“The state has not mandated that we merge. But, I’d rather do it without a gun to my head,” said Richard Keyse, a mental-health board member.
Lyden said it is her understanding all the mental-health and ADAS boards must be merged by 2014. Even if it is not mandated, however, the state might force merger through funding, she said.
In his letter to Lyden, Chordas noted several issues to be considered, including projected cuts in federal and state funding and federal health-care reform that requires the integration of physical and behavioral health.
Though there seemed to be little opposition to looking into a merger, some issues were raised that need to be resolved.
Atty. Linette M. Stratford, county chief assistant prosecutor who represents both boards, was asked to research the Ohio Revised Code for any requirements for or restrictions against merging. She said she would deliver her legal opinion on that and other issues before the merger committee’s next meeting April 24.
Other issues to be addressed in the proposed merger are disposition of revenue generated by the mental-health levy, staffing, and facilities.
“I work with this everyday,” said Patricia Sciaretta, a member of the ADAS board and social worker at the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley, referring to dual diagnoses of mental health and addiction.
Mental health and drug and alcohol and addiction service agencies in the tri-county area work very well together, she said.
“When push comes to shove, it [merger] will work if we keep our focus on helping people,” Sciaretta said.