Mental Health

Like most mid-west communities, Story County has an insufficient supply of psychiatric and substance abuse services to support people in recovery from those illnesses. In the 2010 needs assessment study almost 20% of Story County residents reported having had two or more years in their lives when they felt depressed or sad on most days. Almost 9% reported they had been diagnosed with major depression by a physician at some point in their lives.

United Way of Story County is collaborating with local mental health professionals to address the growing needs. The Story County Mental Health Criminal Justice Task Force, composed of individuals from across mental health, law enforcement and other community organizations, is working to improve the system-wide response to mentally ill individuals.

The task force’s vision is to bring about increased awareness and recognition of the mentally ill to ensure people receive the services they need, to provide better transitions and to ensure compliance with case plans and to address crisis situations more effectively and efficiently.

Efforts to improve the mental health services in Story County have included:

Educating the community, in partnership with NAMI and Mary Greeley Medical Center, to provide Mental Health First Aid Training that helps the public better identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness, thus improving outcomes for individuals experiencing these illnesses.
Exploring the possibility of establishing a Wellness Center where people with mental illness could go for socialization, educational programs and activities. Through United Way of Story County Endowment funds, a pilot program began in August 2011. The Mental Health Wellness Center, operated through NAMI, has been very successful. The Wellness Center moved to a more permanent location in January 2012 and has received funding to extend services through June 30, 2012. Because of this tremendous success, ASSET funders will support the Wellness Center in FY2013.
Partnering with law enforcement, the medical community and mental health providers to create a unified system that provides 24/7 on-call mental health care crisis services. Discussions to explore the possibility of creating a crisis/assessment center have been ongoing.
Understanding the realistic, and dismal financial situation of The Richmond Center under the contract management of the Community for Family Resources, has prompted Story County and other ASSET funders to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to community mental health centers. Story County, in cooperation with other ASSET funders began contract negotiations with the Eyerly Ball, the successful applicant, and the expectation is that services will be up and running by July 1, 2012.