Young County applying for mobile mental health unit grant

Young County applying for mobile mental health unit grant News Staff Tue, 02/06/2024 - 3:47 pm

• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Joe Gambill (right) of Strategic Economic Efforts, presents to the Young County Commissioners Court how his firm will help write the grant application for a mobile mental health unit for the county at a specially called meeting Friday, Feb. 2.

TC Gordon news@grahamleader.com

Young County recently passed a resolution to apply for a grant regarding a mobile mental health team to assist with mental health in the community and intervention in mental health crises.

In a specially called meeting Friday, Feb. 2 of the Young County Commissioners Court, Judge Win Graham and the county commissioners voted unanimously to apply for Senate Bill 26 which would provide a two-year program which would cost $1.35 million to provide the Critical Access Rapid Response Evaluation (CARRE) unit for Young County.

The unit will serve those unable to access services in rural communities due to barriers with the local mental health authority and receive outside mental health services.

The team would be made up of a mental health peace officer, a licensed clinical social worker, a medic and a peer support staff member. The peace officer could also be dual licensed as a medic to reduce the cost associated with the program.

The budget for the team includes the salaries and benefits for the team members, one administrative/human resource personnel, two specially equipped vehicles, six laptops, software to track cases, uniforms and other supplies.

The commissioners also voted unanimously to hire a firm called Strategic Economic Efforts to write the Senate Bill 26 grant. The court also agreed to put the firm on retainer for the writing and administration of future grants.

“We’re in the process of applying for the Senate Bill 26 grant, which is the mobile mental health team, the care unit that we’ve all been talking about for over a year now,” Graham said. “I feel confident that this court supports it because we did put that in our budget, and we do have it budgeted.”

The deadline for the grant is coming up quickly and came as a bit of a surprise to the county, hence the request to hire Strategic Economic Efforts to get the application done. Applications for the grant have to be submitted by Feb. 15 by 10:30 a.m.

Joe Gambill of Strategic Economic Efforts spoke to the court to present his company’s services and share why they believe they can get the grant done in an effective and successful manner.

“What I try to do is match the need with the writer and moving forward, I was telling the (Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck) that the writer on this grant 26 has never lost a grant that he has written,” Gambill said. “And so he is really picky about what he puts his name on and how it moves forward.”

As with most grants, the county or applying entity is responsible for covering 10% of the overall cost while the grant would cover the rest. The county has been aware of this cost and budgeted it into the FY 2024 budget.

The county has received lots of support from the community in favor of this new program and Graham believes that applying for this grant and implementing this new team would benefit the county, as well as individual entities within it.

“Another thing interesting about this grant is we’ve got quite a bit of community support for it,” Graham said. “We’ve already received letters of support for the grant from the Graham Regional Medical Center, Olney Hamilton Hospital, Olney ISD, Graham ISD is going to send us one and I believe the sheriff’s office is going to send us one for helping keep people out of the jail that don’t belong there.”

Members of the commissioners court and the county believe this mental health unit will provide an excellent service to the community that hasn’t been here before. Applying for this grant is one of the first steps in making that happen.

“Texas has never been strong in the mental health areas, it never has funded it at a level of need, so I think this is a tremendous program,” Gambill said.

• News

Breaking News Off