Agency gets $291k to develop mental health resources
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (Sept. 8, 2023) – A grant awarded to the ADAMHS Board will help fund Tuscarawas County’s first Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center.
The agency is getting more than $291,000 from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Executive Director Natalie Bollon says part of it will buy equipment for the facility Springvale Health Centers is opening in New Philadelphia to provide immediate assistance to people with behavioral and physical health concerns.
“..so that they don’t have to wait a week or two or 10 days to get into a provider. We also know that sometimes people let their medication run out and it takes a minute to get back in to get your medication refilled. The urgent care is also gonna be able to offer that bridge medication to that individual until they’re able to get back into their prescribing physician.”
The grant is one of 37 statewide and will also be used to develop a countywide trauma response team, one for first responders, and transform an unusable space in the county jail into a behavioral health area.
“I feel so incredibly proud of the work that staff here has done and that our system here has done to bring attention to different needs that we have both with workforce, with travel to get to a session, and just people’s perceptions of mental health in an Appalachian community. I could not be more proud that we are one of 37 across the state of Ohio.”
Bollon says Springvale hopes to open the behavioral health urgent care center sometime in the fall and expects 500 to 700 patients during its first year.
The board is using a separate grant, money from its savings, and $1-million from the Tuscarawas County commissioners to build the area’s first publicly funded men’s residential substance abuse treatment center. Ohio Guidestone will operate the facility outside of Dennison called Stillwater Crossing that’s tentatively scheduled to open in 2024.