The Delaware-Morrow Mental Health and Recovery Services Board (DMMHRSB) has been awarded $1.3 million to help strengthen local services for residents facing a mental health or substance use crisis. The funding is part of $90 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS). DMMHRSB will use the majority of these federal grant funds to purchase land where it plans to build a Behavioral Health and Crisis Campus.
“This will bring many of the frontline agencies that we fund into the same building. Many of these critical organizations currently work in tiny offices or even converted houses that are too small for their needs. Building a hub will keep them in a single place where they can easily share many of the services they require, while also giving them the space and privacy they need to operate independently,” said Deanna Brant, executive director of the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health and Recovery Services Board. The proposed property on Delaware’s east side is adjacent to the new Byxbe Campus, which houses the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office and several other county agencies.
While $1.08 million of the grant money will go toward purchasing the parcel, the remaining $280,000 will be used to purchase an Advanced Life Support transport vehicle for Morrow County. Emergency Medical Services will use it primarily to transport behavioral health patients to appropriate facilities.
“Many Morrow County patients currently have to be transported by sheriff’s deputies, which takes them away from other duties and isn’t always the appropriate response. Having a dedicated vehicle like this better aligns with our goal of providing compassionate and effective behavioral health care and substance abuse treatment,” Brant said.
“With these projects, Ohio is taking a leap forward to reverse decades of neglect for Ohio’s behavioral health crisis care system, ultimately creating a more hopeful future for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis,” said Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Director Lori Cross.
The Delaware-Morrow Mental Health and Recovery Services Board is a publicly-supported board that works to ensure high-quality, evidence-based, behavioral health services are available locally to all residents in its communities. The mission of the Delaware-Morrow County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board is to promote wellness and support recovery by planning, funding, and monitoring public mental health and addiction services for Delaware and Morrow counties.
For more information on the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board, visit www.dmmhrsb.org.
Submitted by the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board.
