Several behavioral health organizations in McLean County are getting funding to start projects or bolster continuing services designed to improve the community’s mental health.
The McLean County Board of Health [BOH] awarded around $1.8 million to eight projects, with one pending final approval at next month’s meeting. Some grants — including around $100,000 total to the McLean County Center for Human Services for its Mobile Crisis Unit and psychiatric services operations — are funding options the BOH has historically supported.
But almost half of the efforts are completely new, said board President Scott Hume.
That includes a $75,000 grant to the Center for Youth and Family Solutions [CYFS] to target counseling for vulnerable populations of McLean County, $50,000 to Integrity Counseling to continue its efforts of giving no and low-cost therapy to the uninsured and underinsured, as well as just over $80,000 to PATH Crisis Center to create an educational puppet show on suicide prevention for area youth. [The puppet show grant is the one pending a vote, but PATH was already approved for funding of 211 services].
“We looked at all the applications through the lens of the Community Health Needs Assessment and the Community Health Improvement Plan, and decided on what we approved based on kind of that criteria,” Hume said, adding that there were around 13 total applicants the board wound up selecting from.
Hume said all of the projects are exciting, but he’s particularly interested to see PATH use its grant for a puppet show, considering how unique it is.
“There's no real model for this particular program,” he said. “It's something that the staff [at] PATH have developed, so this may become the model that other communities use to present this kind of information.”
CYFS to help vulnerable populations
At CYFS, the goal is to help the unhoused and 55-plus demographics in McLean County get better access to counseling services, through CYFS.
“Both of them have lots of barriers in setting or location or access to be able to have consistent services,” Clinical Supervisor Jennifer Woodrum said. “So we thought it was a community need we can meet.”
She pointed out that for the geriatric age group, finding mental health services in general or that take Medicare can be an issue in town, which can make paying for therapy a challenge and ultimately a deterrent. But CYFS has the licensure and is prepared to take on those clients.
“It does give us more freedom to be able to meet with families without having to worry about the funding source when we don't have access to insurance that we can bill,” she said.
Grant funding from BOH will largely go toward compensation for two full-time staff and each will focus on one of the groups. Woodrum said CYFS has already selected two of its current interns for those roles.
In the case of the staff who will focus on the unhoused population, Clinical Director Jessica Wolf said she’s already gotten to work connecting with that community during her internship. The hope, Wolf added, is that will help the transition when she goes full-time.
“Because it did take a little bit of time for her get her foot in the door, so to speak, get some acceptance, get some, you know, them wanting to reach out to her, them feeling more comfortable with her,” Wolf said of that intern.
Project Oz shifts to mental health focus
While CYFS didn’t get BOH funding last year, Project Oz has historically benefitted from the opportunity.
Hume with the BOH said the board decided to continue funding groups that have previously gotten grants since they’ve proved themselves as reliable stewards.
“They've proven themselves to be effective at doing what we ask them to do,” he said.
That is the case with Project Oz, though the group has shifted the aim of its efforts slightly. In recent years, grants were used for substance use education and prevention. This year, the organization is prioritizing mental health education for youth and families, said Joanne Glancy, Project Oz’s director of prevention services.
The group is getting just over $268,000 to add a third Mental Health Specialist to its staff and bolster its existing and developing youth and family mental health services. Glancy said Project Oz is in the middle of hiring for the role.
By the numbers
Here are the groups getting funding:
- The Center for Youth and Family Solutions for $75,000 to provide counseling and outreach for vulnerable populations
- Integrity Counseling for just under $48,768.57 to provide counseling for the uninsured and underinsured
- The McLean County Center for Human Services for roughly $253,246.59 for the Mobile Crisis Unit and about $673,244.29 for psychiatric services
- PATH Crisis Center for just under $120,974.31 for its 211 call center and — pending a vote at the next meeting — roughly $80,000 for an educational puppet show on suicide prevention
- Project Oz for $268,196.70 to educate youth and families about mental health
- The Baby Fold for $280,000 for its Healthy Start program
Like CYFS, Glancy said Project Oz is already doing some of the work that the grant targets, but the idea is to expand its efforts to four new schools, as well as the juvenile detention center. This is something community members have been asking for, she added.
Project Oz is actively teaching suicide prevention training to around 3,200 students in the area, but Glancy said the grant money allows the group to add its NAMI Ending the Silence programming to four new schools: Central Catholic High School, University High School, Trinity Lutheran and Regional Alternative School. Plus, the juvenile detention center.
“We want to expand, because we often receive requests from schools we currently serve to add additional grade levels from the ones that we teach now, and also from new schools to add services for them,” she said. “We also know that there's a big gap in our community regarding support for caregivers of youth with mental health challenges, and this is one way that we can impact that.”
Glancy said Project Oz is developing fresh education tools and courses that will help that will help caregivers talk to their children, connect with the schools and find resources for mental health. The nonprofit is also creating wellness kits that will include items notes of support, a healthy snack and sour candy.
“Because sour candy can help reduce anxiety, as well as some sensory items for them to have, and so counselors will be able to give those to families when they come in contact with them,” Glancy said.
All the grants will run from January 2025 through December 2025.
