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Mahoning commissioners approve merger of mental health, drug boards
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County commissioners approved the plan to consolidate the county’s Mental Health Board and Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board into a new Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board.
In September, those boards voted unanimously to consolidate.
“Many of their functions overlap, and their mission is the same, and that is treatment,” said Commissioner Anthony Traficanti, who has a master’s degree in counseling.
The merger makes sense because many of the clients of mental health and addiction recovery agencies have dual diagnoses of mental illness and substance abuse, Traficanti said.
The resolution the commissioners adopted Thursday “is for the beginning stages of the consolidation process,” said Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti.
“I believe it will be an easy transition, and we’re looking forward to having this process begin,” she said, noting that the consolidation of mental health and addiction-recovery functions is a statewide trend.
The state departments of Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services merged a year ago, and only three Ohio counties have separate mental health and ADAS boards.
“It’s in the best interests of the clients that we serve. So many of the clients do have that dual diagnosis of both mental health and an addiction issue, so it will just allow us to better serve those clients,” Brenda Heidinger, ADAS board executive director, said of the merger.
“A consolidation moves in the direction to eliminate the duplication of services. Now, you move with one director and one board,” said David Ditzler, chairman of the county commissioners.
“We fund many of the same agencies,” he said of the mental health and ADAS boards. He said July 1 is the target date for consolidation.
Ditzler added that Duane Piccirilli, who is now mental health board executive director, will likely head the consolidated agency.
The ADAS board staff would likely move across Champion Street into the existing mental health board office in the Ohio One Building, where the mental health board has two years remaining on its lease, Piccirilli said.
That would save $1,500 a month in ADAS board rent, Heidinger said.
Noting that both boards have reduced staff by not replacing employees who’ve left, Piccirilli said he doesn’t expect anyone to be laid off due to the merger, but he said duties may be reassigned.
The mental health board has a staff of six and an $8 million annual budget; and ADAS has a staff of four and a $2 million annual budget.
The boards coordinate tax-funded mental health and addiction-recovery services in the county.
“The real winners in this are the taxpayers and the consumers of Mahoning County because there’s going to be one centralized, planning, funding and evaluation system for mental health and recovery,” Piccirilli said.
The commissioners also authorized establishment of a criminal and administrative justice fund, and directed county Auditor Michael V. Sciortino to assign the necessary fund and account numbers.
Beginning Jan. 1, that fund will contain the revenue dedicated to the sheriff’s, prosecutor’s and coroner’s offices and 911 emergency dispatching center that will be derived from the 0.50 sales tax renewal and the additional 0.25 percent sales tax that voters approved Nov. 4. That combined revenue is estimated at $24 million a year.
Audrey Tillis, county budget director, said the justice fund will be known as Fund 0200. It will be part of the county’s general fund, which is its main operating fund.