Gazette opinion: Rethinking community mental health care in Billings – Billings Gazette

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Meanwhile, the Crisis Center is getting a comprehensive assessment of its services and delivery model with an outside consultant, Neary said. Information from this assessment due in March will guide the owners' decisions on any changes to be made in the center that serves adults in mental health and chemical dependency crisis. Most of its clients are homeless, too.

The Crisis Center is owned by Billings Clinic, St. Vincent Healthcare, Mental Health Center and RiverStone Health. It provides needed services regardless of ability to pay. Because it will receive less grant money from the state during the next 18 months, the Crisis Center aims to get certified for Medicaid addiction treatment. Then it can bill Medicaid for chemical dependency evaluations that it has been providing at no charge.

In 2010, Yellowstone County voters approved a permanent tax levy to support mental health care that assists law enforcement. In the campaign for the levy, proponents told voters the tax money would go to services like the Crisis Center and the HUB, the Mental Health Center's drop-in center for homeless, mentally ill adults. So far, that is how the money has been used and it has sustained those services for people who would be an even greater burden on the public if they were in jail or hospitals. The HUB and Crisis Center have helped many people get off the streets and into ongoing healthier, safer living.

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Gazette opinion: Rethinking community mental health care in Billings - Billings Gazette