MCMHRB’s fiscal 2017 budget is $10,357,554
YOUNGSTOWN
Client housing – permanent and transitional detox – and children and youth services are emphasized in the $10.3 million budget for fiscal 2017 recently adopted by the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board.
Fiscal year 2017 runs from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017.
This $10,357,554 budget reflects needed community services for mental health and addiction treatment and prevention service providers in Mahoning County, said Duane Piccirilli, executive director of the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board.
These dollars are used to support services for county residents.
This year’s budget includes a $792,219 expenditure from agency reserves to balance the budget, said Piccirilli.
“The board made the decision that we are here to serve people. We kept back five months of operating capital and dollars for detox,” he said.
“Our funding provides the safety net needed for our most-vulnerable citizens. Our local levy dollars, combined with allocations from the Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services, allows us to increase services over fiscal year 2016,” said Brenda Heidinger, associate director of MCMHRB.
“Given the current heroin-overdose epidemic, and with Ohio being the second-highest state in the nation for overdose deaths, we must provide prevention education for our citizens, as well as treatment and other social supports for those affected, including family members,” Heidinger said.
“I think the MCMHRB, the combined Mahoning County Mental Health Board and Mahoning County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board, in its second year is working well,” Piccirilli said.
“People are dying of drug overdoses every day. Our goal is to partner with other agencies and fight addiction,” he said.
The emphasis on housing includes permanent housing assistance in the form of vouchers for clients with mental health and addiction diagnoses, administered by the Help Hotline Crisis Center.
Allocations for several new services are in the fiscal year 2017 budget.
Among them are: $181,000 to support the opening of a sub-acute detox center at Turning Point Counseling Center, which is converting six of the 16 beds in its crisis stabilization unit to sub-acute detox beds for clients with co-occurring disorders; $75,000 for one-time-only transitional housing bridge funding to Meridian Healthcare; and $60,000 to Alta Behavioral Health, formerly D&E Counseling, to facilitate a partnership with Mahoning County Juvenile Judge Theresa Dellick, to prevent at-risk youths from becoming involved in the courts.
Increased money, totaling $869,000, is allocated for special projects and professional services. They include $14,946 to Home for Kids for clinical supervision and administrative support for two Potential Development staff to provide community psychiatric supportive treatment services for future Medicaid billing.
“Medicaid expansion is a game-changer for us. With more people getting medical care through Medicaid, it enables us to use levy dollars for other services,” Piccirilli said.
Allocating $42,250 to Mercy Health Foundation to help fund a hospital navigator will provide a safety net for the entire behavioral health system to service MCMHRB’s most-vulnerable consumers, Piccirilli said.
“This partnership between Mercy Health and the MCMHRB provides the opportunity for better care coordination and ultimately better patient outcomes. The patient navigator created by the MCMHRB and Mercy Health Foundation will work with patients, community agencies and families to improve care and reduce barriers to treatment,” said Crystal Jones of the Mercy Foundation.
Two local property-tax levies generate about $4 million per year, which is about 40 percent of the budget. The rest is made up of state and federal dollars, Piccirilli said.
Administrative costs make up the difference between the budget amount and the allocations.
They include a one-time moving cost, including renovation, from the One Ohio Building to the children services building in July.
Also, Piccirilli said, there is a $60,000 appropriation of unallocated state and levy funds that will be distributed by the board during this fiscal year. This includes $10,000 from levy funds for “hot spots. I requested this money to be set aside in the event a special project or community needs come to the board,” he said.
These levy funds also paid for provider training to work with a specific disorder and recovery housing last year; and this year, $2,500 will be given to Alta to provide assistance to Domestic Courts Children’s Group, Piccirilli said.