WellStone Behavioral Health CEO Chris Van Dyke is seen here addressing the Cullman County Commission about the Stepping Up Initiative last summer. The program officially began this month. (Cullman Tribune file photo)
CULLMAN – On Wednesday morning, the Cullman County Commission authorized Sheriff Matt Gentry to sign a memorandum of agreement between the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and WellStone Behavioral Health for a pilot program to provide mental health services to repeat inmates who may suffer from mental illness or addiction, in an effort to reduce rates of recidivism, the repeated commission of offenses.
The County Commission agreed last summer to support local participation in what is known as the Stepping Up Initiative (www.cullmantribune.com/articles/2018/06/12/cullman-commission-passes-resolution-increase-local-mental-health-services). With County support, WellStone CEO Chris Van Dyke applied for and received a $50,000 grant, making the mental health care provider one of a handful of companies in the state to participate in the pilot program (www.cullmantribune.com/articles/2018/09/10/cullman-s-wellstone-behavioral-health-awarded-50k-grant-stepping-initiative).
When the grants were awarded to WellStone and other providers, Alabama Department of Mental Health Commissioner Lynn Beshear issued this statement:
“Today our local jails and hospitals – neither of which have it as their mission – are serving as mental health providers, which is creating a dire situation that is both dangerous and unsustainable. It is incumbent upon communities and regions to work together in partnership to reduce the number of individuals with mental illness in jails and ERs and to direct these individuals to the appropriate care. It will be a win for those individuals, a win for the community and indeed for the entire state and prison system.”
WellStone began planning and setting up the program in October, with a goal of providing service both to repeat offenders at the jail and to recurring visitors to Cullman Regional’s emergency room who exhibit signs of mental illness or substance abuse. Actual services have begun this month.
On Wednesday, Van Dyke told The Tribune, “We have a staff person who will go work with people in the jail who’ve been back multiple times, and a precipitating factor in that is mental illness or substance abuse. She does the same thing with the hospital; if there’s somebody in the ER that’s been coming back repeatedly, and it might be because of mental illness or substance abuse, then she tries to figure out what services in the community are needed to keep this person from coming back again. Then we’ll try to link them with those services, provide whatever services we can, and then measure our results over time, to see how many fewer trips to the ER and the jail people have.”
According to Van Dyke, WellStone is one of six providers in the state providing this service. The pilot program was intended to run for one year, but he expressed the belief that it could become a longer-term project.
Gentry shared, “For us, we average three calls a day where somebody’s suicidal or homicidal, you know, and it’s every day for us. We’re dealing with that every day. So mental illness is a huge factor for us in what we deal with every day at the sheriff’s office, not only in our jail, but just out on the street.”
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