“We want to take some time to get this right,” said Kaleb Barrows, chief operating officer at DeCoach.
Mobile crisis response is a new service for DeCoach, so starting out, the center will be learning the needs of the community before rolling out a pilot program.
“We’re going to take at least a month to hear you,” Barrows said. “Hear you, hear community members, hear from folks from the hospitals, law enforcement.”
Barrows wants to hear what people in the community want to see or need to be a part of how the mobile mental health crisis services operate, he said.
The contract is a little more than a half-a-million dollars but is not using any local human services levy dollars, with $404,841 coming from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and $116,987 from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services.
The backstory
Mental health crisis services ― including the former Crisis Now hotline, mobile crisis services and the Montgomery County Crisis Receiving Center ― fell apart in Montgomery County in late May 2024 after RI International, the county’s prior provider, cut ties with the county.
RI International cited losses in the millions and an inability to keep up with costs as its reasons for why it was leaving the county and would no longer be providing the three-tiered crisis services. Its last contract with Montgomery County ADAMHS allowed RI International to give a two-week notice that it would be leaving.
ADAMHS put out a request for proposals (RFP) in late August to find a replacement provider for these services after a majority of the board voted down replacements its staff recommended after the RI International debacle.
The RFPs were initially limited to local providers, but when Montgomery County ADAMHS received limited responses ― including one from DeCoach for mobile response ― the board extended the RFPs to out-of-county providers, delaying the implementation of mobile mental health crisis services in Montgomery County through January.
What to expect
Mobile response services will be the only part of the previous three-tiered Crisis Now approach to start back up again in Montgomery County. Crisis calls will continue to go to Montgomery County’s 988 provider, Sojourner, which is located in Butler County, and there are no plans to start up another crisis receiving center, ADAMHS staff said.
The previous crisis receiving center was not owned or operated by Montgomery County ADAMHS; instead, RI International had been leasing the space at Elizabeth Place in Dayton.
DeCoach has retained some of the staff from Montgomery County’s former crisis response teams under RI International, but the organization will have to recruit other employees, Barrows said.
The contract begins in March, which will include meeting with stakeholders, planning and building relationships with other providers in the county, including cities that may already have their own mental health crisis response teams.
“From there, we would want to move into a soft launch of the mobile services,” said Kimberly Priester, director of treatment and supportive services at Montgomery County ADAMHS.
DeCoach’s current plan is provide services within a little over an eight-hour time period, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the beginning of April. In May, the organization plans to have a full implementation of services from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The goal of the mental health mobile crisis response services is to take some of the burden off of law enforcement to have mental health experts respond to a scene where someone may be having a mental health crisis either with or in place of law enforcement officers.
DeCoach may not be able to take that burden off of law enforcement completely as Barrows, after being asked when they might begin offering 24-hour services, said they might not be able to reach that point due to budget limitations.
“I’m not going to over promise and under deliver,” Barrows said.
Montgomery County ADAMHS' contract with DeCoach is from March 1 through the end of September.
About the Author
