PORT TOWNSEND — A total of $1.28 million for mental health and substance-abuse programs was approved unanimously for funding Monday by the Jefferson County commissioners.

Budget allocations of $640,882 each year for 2019 and 2020 will come from the Jefferson County 1/10th of 1 percent tax revenue set aside for mental health programs.

If for any reason the sales tax revenue decreases during the terms of the contact, vendors will be contacted and their contracts may be renegotiated.

The allocations are the result of a request for proposal (RFP) and in-depth review process, and are recommended by the Mental Health/Substance Abuse Advisory Committee of Jefferson County Public Health.

Anna McEnery, developmental disability coordinator, and Vicki Kirkpatrick, public health director, presented the recommendations to the commissioners.

Those set to receive funds include the Nurse Family Partnership Program, Jumping Mouse services, Jumping Mouse Brinnon Pilot Project, school-based mental health services in Port Townsend, Chimacum, Quilcene and Brinnon school districts provided by MCS Counseling Group, Navigator Program by MCS, Recovery Cafe provided by Dove House, jail assessment/case management provided by Believe in Recovery, CODIT (Co-Occurring Disorder Integrated Treatment) services by Discovery Behavioral Healthcare, transitional housing provided by Discovery Behavioral Healthcare, and transitional housing provided by Olympic Community Action Programs.

Funding also is available for three therapeutic courts (drug, mental health and family therapeutic courts) for case management incentives and urinalyses, Juvenile and Family court, administrative support and billing services, contact/development/management, vendor oversight, RFP development, staffing of the Mental Health/Substance Abuse Advisory Committee and funding for the Kitsap County epidemiologist to provide data and reporting for all programs funded by this program.

McEnery said priority funding areas focus on prevention in schools and at home for children coping with mental health and substance use.

“We want to reduce the incidence and severity of substance use on disorders of mental health while improving the health and well-being,” McEnery said. “We do that through the therapeutic courts and hopefully diverting adults with those issues through emergency rooms and contact with the criminal justice system.”

She said the Mental Health/Substance Abuse Advisory Committee started with an RFP.

“After six weeks, three members of the committee met for 12 hours and interviewed every agency that put forward a request. We had an evaluation tool for each vendor. Then we created the recommendations with help from Veronica Shaw from Public Health.”

McEnery noted the final request was about $240,000 more than the allocation received.

Commissioner Greg Brotherton, who is the newest member of the advisory committee, said he was pleased with some of the new programs.

“Jumping Mouse in Brinnon is great and I advocated for it earlier.”

He also asked about Dove House’s Recovery Cafe.

“They are getting $45,000, a third of what they need to get going,” he said. “What happens if they can’t raise the funds?”

McEnery said they have already received a $50,000 matching grant.

“They are putting in a request for more grants and are hopeful that they will get more funding from other places,” she said. “They requested $158,000 for the first year and the committee would like to see a program with boots on the ground actually accomplishing something before they were comfortable allocating more funds.”

The Mental Health/Substance Abuse Advisory Committee includes representatives from Jefferson County Schools, hospital commissioners, Jefferson County courts, law enforcement, Port Townsend City Council, Salish Behavioral Health Organization, the Board of Health and the county commissioners.

Sponsored by then-state Sen. Jim Hargrove the 1/10th of 1 percent local sales and use tax was established to specifically fund new mental health and chemical dependency treatment programs and therapeutic court services, McEnery said.

Jefferson County was the first county in the state to create an ordinance, which was signed Oct. 3, 2005.

________

Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at [email protected].