County approves Behavioral Health proposals
The Imperial County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to approve two different proposal brought forward by the Imperial County Behavioral Health Services.
The two requests include approving an agreement for professional services for the Imperial Valley College to provide advising and counseling services to behavioral health patients who can benefit from pursuing higher education and the addition of a Deputy Director of Behavioral Health Services to be placed in the crisis and engagement services.
The first of the requests presented by Behavioral Health Services Director Michael Horn was to authorize the continuation of the agreement with the college to from July 1 to June 30, 2017, to have two IVC academic counselors to provide specialized academic advising and support services to the clients that have been identified as having the ability to benefit from a community college post-secondary education.
“They do an incredible job, they go to all of our clinics and get people interested in going back to school,” Horn said. “Mental illness is not a life sentence, people recover and once they do and move on with their lives and a lot of them are going back to college because of (counselors) Yolanda (Romero) and Mireya (Felix). It’s been a very successful program.”
The annual extension of the agreement will be for $283,550 which will be funded through the Mental Health Services Act Community Services and Supports Program.
A second request from Behavioral Health Services was made to approve the addition of a Deputy Director to work for the Crisis and Engagement Service. The department previously had this position occupied until 2013 and is now asking to add the new position which will be entirely funded by the Behavioral Health’s Fund salary savings.
CES had previously been under the direction of the Youth and Young Adults Deputy Director but just in March of this year the CES transitioned to be its own division.
The new division already has a staff of 55 and is expected to expand substantially within the next couple of years.
The goal of the new division is to offer more efficient assessments, targeted case management services, crisis interventions to properly service its clients in a timely manner.
Horn said that the department will probably come back to the board in September to begin the process to remodel the first floor of its building on Eighth Street.
District 4 Supervisor Ryan Kelley commended the job the department has done and briefly touched on the possibility of the expansion:
“I support the expansion but would love to see it move forward now,” Kelley said. “I don’t want us to backtrack again. I want this to progress to where we have construction and the added capacity.”
Both proposals were approved by a unanimous vote.