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County gets recommendations on mental health funds

Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, WA) - 4/30/2015

April 30--PORT ORCHARD -- The county's mental health tax will generate about $2.4 million in one-year spending beginning in July, assuming county commissioners follow recommendations made by a citizens committee that considered grant requests.

The Citizens Advisory Committee made its suggestions to the commissioners Wednesday. The commissioners will vote on the spending plan at their meeting May 11.

The county expects to take in $3.4 million annually from the one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax, approved by commissioners in September 2013 to pay for mental health, chemical dependency and therapeutic court services.

The money would help continue some programs, such as Kitsap County drug court and an effort to address mental health and substance abuse issues at 10 elementary schools and seven high schools.

New programs include a mental health and substance abuse treatment court for veterans; an effort in Poulsbo to decrease repeat misdemeanor offenders; and a program designed to strengthen families in the Central Kitsap School District.

The $73,510 funding for the Poulsbo court program would fund a specialist to make sure people who agree to diversion are meeting their commitments. The goal is to get people with mental and behavioral health issues, evidenced by repeated appearance in municipal court, to use diversion strategies.

Russell Hartman, chairman of the advisory committee, said that Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson was especially keen on watching the progress of the program and that the idea was unique in this area. "There is really nothing like it locally," Hartman said.

About $1 million will be held in reserve in preparation for a state-led effort to make chemical dependency treatment services be treated like mental health services, said Doug Washburn, the county's human services director.

Mental health service providers bill the county, which then gets reimbursed through state Medicaid funding. The state wants to do the same thing with chemical dependency treatment, and Washburn said the reimbursement rates have yet to be established.

The county received about $3.1 million in requests, which the committee pared down by about $700,000. Crisis intervention training for countywide law enforcement officers will rely on $92,860 that wasn't spent from a grant provided a year ago. The Cascade Recovery Center did not qualify this year for any of the $295,000 it asked for to provide a family dependency court.

Kitsap County Superior Court would receive $501,412 to expand the capacity of its drug court from 100 participants to 150. The Olympic Educational Service District 114 would receive $835,418 for training on suicide prevention, behavioral health issues, intervention and referral options at high schools and elementaries in the region.

The county's juvenile court would get $196,234 for therapy services and other treatments for juveniles with behavioral health problems.

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