Portage County mental health services and their funds

Amanda Thompson, Rob Young and Karyn Kravetz talk about the importance of mental health and how Portage County Mental Health services are funded.

 

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness.

But those who work for the Mental Health and Recovery Board (MHRB) of Portage County do not focus on statistics.

“Now my boss does not like that stat, because he likes to remind people that we all have mental health conditions. They may not be diagnosable, but we’ve all experienced depression and anxiety and stress.” said Karyn Kravetz, Director of Community Relations of the board.

The MHRB does not provide counseling or services for those seeking treatment. Instead, they fund different agencies in the county.

Rob Young is the Clinical Services Director at Townhall II; one of the agencies funded by the MHRB. Townhall II, located in Downtown Kent, focuses on addiction prevention and treatment.

“That’s what treatment is about – a big part of treatment is just trying to help that person really take an honest look at the trouble or the consequences that their use has caused,” Young said. “Maybe it will build some motivation to at least slow down, if not quit their use.”

Their funds also come from Medicaid and local levy dollars.

“If an individual does not have Medicaid or they’re on a private insurance that we’re not with,” Young said. “If they live in Portage County; we look at their income and number of dependents and plug them into the formula. And that’s how we can come up with the cost of a service.”

Townhall II holds a contract with the MHRB, that allows them to provide residents of the county with a “sliding fee scale.” The agency also receives money from private insurances, self-pay and some grant money.

Agencies are not the only places that provide counseling or other mental health services.

Amanda Thompson is the owner of Counseling for Wellness, a private practice in Kent, that provides services for those seeking help. The staff is made up of general practitioners, but each counselor has their own specialty. These specialties could vary from anxiety, depression or life transitions.

Counseling for Wellness is a private practice, so they do not receive funding from the state or the MHRB of Portage County.  

Their funds come from the individual paying for services.

“The only change with that would be if there were any kind of funding cuts or changes with behavioral health and insurance,” Thompson said. “Not to get to far into politics and stuff, but depending on who is elected and how they change healthcare.”

Politics can play a role in the funding of these programs – both private or public. If insurance companies were to stop reimbursing; all agencies and practices would eventually become self-pay. This would cause services to shut down or programs to be cut, because it would be too expensive to keep them up and running.

Kravetz says it is hard to think about what would if happen if the board lost their funding. She believes mental health services are just as necessary as physical health services.

“It’s all essential to a person’s well-being.” Kravetz said.