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Mental Health resources can be found locally through various nonprofits and other organizations. For someone in a crisis, it may be difficult to find mental health services sprawled across various platforms. Hays County Commissioners Court addressed the need for a streamlined process by adding a behavioral health coordinator position, which will be responsible for finding and organizing all of the mental health resources across the county into one, easily navigable online location.
The court unanimously approved a new Behavioral Health Coordinator position with equipment in the Hays County Local Health Department effective Feb. 1. The funding allocated for the position and equipment for fiscal year 2024 is $56,768 with a base salary of $56,373, according to the meeting packet.
This particular position is going to be the center for trying to find different resources from the county, the city and nonprofit organizations and start collectively bringing them together in one place,” Hays County Commissioner Michelle Cohen said. “The hope is that this position will do all of that research and data gathering of what [mental health] services are out there in our county that we could partner with and kind of bring together in one area. Similar to what we’re doing with the pet resource center.”
Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe said the Behavioral Health Coordinator was identified as a need during the Sequential Intercept Model Mapping workshop, which according to the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health focuses on identifying behavioral health needs as well as disparities in healthcare access and criminal justice involvement.
“That’s something that was identified was that there were really a lot of resources out in our community, but nobody knew about them,” Ingalsbe said. “We can allow individuals and families to go to one place and not be looking all over to try to find those resources that are desperately needed.”
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said this would alleviate some of the pressure from his office who had taken this on previously.
“We’ve taken that on personally as an office, but to have [the position at] our health department, which is a natural place for it, would be ideal,” Becerra said.
Hays County Commissioner Lon Shell agreed.
“I think that’s been what’s happening. People have been sort of taking pieces of this trying to do the best they can, but one’s ever owned it,” Shell said. “No one has said, ‘This is my job. This is what I do on a day-to-day basis. I’m going to get to know everyone out there. I’m going to attend all of the meetings. I’m going to understand from a state level, national level, down all the way to the local level to understand what’s going on.’ … We [will] have somebody that we can turn to and actually lead on this issue.”
