Several behavioral health organizations in McLean County are receiving funding to start projects or support ongoing services to improve community mental health.

The McLean County Board of Health (BOH) has awarded about $1.8 million to eight projects, with one awaiting final approval at next month’s meeting. Some grants, including about $100,000 in total McLean County Center for Human Services for its mobile crisis unit and psychiatric service operations – are funding options that BOH has supported in the past.

But nearly half of the efforts are entirely new, board president Scott Hume said.

This includes a $75,000 grant for Center for Youth and Family Solutions (CYFS) to target counseling for vulnerable populations in McLean County, $50,000 to Integrity counseling to continue its efforts to provide low-cost therapy to the uninsured and underinsured, as well as just over $80,000 for PATH Crisis Center to create an educational puppet show about suicide prevention for area youth. (The puppet show grant is pending a vote, but PATH has already been approved to fund 211 services.)

“We looked at all the applications through the Community Health Needs Assessment and the Community Health Improvement Plan and decided what we approved based on those criteria,” Hume said, adding that there were about 13 applicants in total. got to select from.

Hume said all the projects are exciting, but he’s especially interested to see PATH use its grant for a puppet show, given how unique it is.

“There is no real model for this particular program,” he said. “It’s something that the staff (at) PATH developed, so this can 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 homeless and 55+ in McLean County have better access to counseling services through CYFS.

“They both have a lot of barriers in setting, location or access to being able to have consistent services,” said clinical supervisor Jennifer Woodrum. “So we thought there was a need in the community that we could fill.”

She pointed out that for the geriatric age group, finding mental health services in general or that take Medicare can be a problem in the city, which can make paying for therapy a challenge and ultimately a factor in discouragement. But CYFS is licensed and prepared to take on these clients.

“It gives us more freedom to be able to meet with families without having to worry about the source of funding when we don’t have access to insurance that we can bill,” she said.

The grant funding from BOH will go mostly towards compensation for two full-time staff, and each will focus on one of the groups. Woodrum said CYFS has already tapped two of its current interns for those roles.

As for the staff that will focus on the homeless population, clinical director Jessica Wolf said she has already started working with that community during her internship. The hope, Wolf added, is that it will help the transition when he goes full-time.

“Because it took a little while for her to get her foot in the door, so to speak, to get some acceptance, to get some, you know, to want to reach out to her, to feel more comfortable with her,” Wolf said about that intern.

The Oz Project focuses on mental health

Although CYFS did not receive BOH funding last year, The Oz Project has historically benefited from this opportunity.

BOH’s Hume said the council had decided to continue funding groups that had previously received grants because they had proven to be reliable stewards.

“They have proven to be effective in doing what we ask them to do,” he said.

This is the case with Project Oz, although the group has slightly shifted the focus of its efforts. In recent years, the grants have been 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 receiving just over $268,000 to add a third mental health specialist to its staff and strengthen its existing and emerging youth and family mental health services. Glancy said Project Oz is currently hiring for the role.

Like CYFS, Glancy said Project Oz is already doing some of the work targeted by the grant, 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.

The Oz Project actively teaches suicide prevention classes to about 3,200 students in the area, but Glancy said the grant money allows the group to add NAMI Ending the Silence programming to four new schools: Central Catholic High School, University High School, Trinity Lutheran and Regional Alternative School. In addition, the juvenile detention center.

“We want to expand because we often get requests from the schools we currently serve to add additional levels beyond the ones we teach now, as well as from new schools to add services to them,” said it. “We also know there is a big gap in our community in terms of support for carers of young people with mental health challenges and this is one way we can make an impact on that.”

Glancy said Project Oz is developing new educational tools and courses that will help caregivers talk to their children, connect with schools and find mental health resources. The nonprofit is also creating wellness kits that will include supportive items, a healthy snack and sour candy.

“Because the tarts can help reduce anxiety, as well as some sensory items to have, and so the counselors will be able to give those to the families when they come in contact with them,” Glancy said.

All grants will run from January 2025 to December 2025.