MANSFIELD, Ohio–Richland Mental Health and Recovery Services asked the county commissioners to take the first step toward placing a 10-year, 1-mill renewal levy on the November ballot Tuesday morning.
Joe Trolian, Executive Director of Richland Mental Health and Recovery Services, said the agency is asking for a 10-year levy, instead of a five-year levy, to keep from having to come back in just five years and ask the public to vote again for a levy.
“There’s no reason for us to go out every five years to spend the money for a campaign just to tell everyone that we’re fine. We’d much rather put those dollars into treatment,” Trolian said.
The campaign will cost about $30,000 but none of that money will come from tax dollars. Trolian said the campaign will be funded from fees the Mental Health Board receives for contract services it provides to other county agencies.
“We feel we’ll be just fine to go another 15 years minimum. Personally I think we can go even longer,” Trolian said.
After county commissioners passed the resolution Tuesday morning, the county auditor will now certify the dollar amount that will be generated by the levy. A second resolution will have to be passed by the commissioners to officially place the levy on the November ballot.
The levy, which was originally passed in 1986, would cost a homeowner $1 for every $1,000 of property evaluation annually. Trolian said the levy has been raising about $2 million annually.
The levy accounts for about 40 percent of the Mental Health Board’s funds, with another 40 percent coming from state funding.
Before passing the resolution, the commissioners supported the 66th annual national observance of May as Mental Health Month with a proclamation.
Trolian explained how his agency is working to take a different approach to mental health and addiction in Richland County.
“We are creating a recovery-oriented, trauma-focused community in Richland County,” Trolian said. “What that means is we’re no longer satisfied with, you come in, you do your six months of treatment, when you’re done we shake your hand, we give you a certificate and we say, ‘Thank you for coming. Good luck with the rest of your life.
“We know that the treatment portion is just a small portion of what is needed. We need to first prepare the community ahead of time. Good education, good prevention, good interventions. Then we need to have good treatment in place so we can get people through the right door at the right time, and have that door open in that narrow window of opportunity when people are ready to seek treatment.”
Trolian pointed to a number of partnerships that have helped strengthen the recovery process for residents of Richland County.
“We’ve realized this is a great community for this. None of us treat our services as a silo. We know that we interact with everybody,” Trolian said.
“We are creating a recovery-oriented, trauma-focused community in Richland County,” Joe Trolian said.
