By Sarah Watson
Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus, Ill.
SCOTT COUNTY, iowa — Scott County will start new program that aims to help people with serious mental illness get out of a cycle of homelessness, jails and hospitals.
The county Board of Supervisors approved the new program on Thursday.
The idea for the program came from a committee tasked with coming up with solutions for so-called “high-utilizers” of public emergency response resources. They found that $7.1 million had been spent on 17 individuals over a five-year period.
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“And we have not made their lives any better,” Community Services Director Lori Elam said.
One person died from a drug overdose, Elam said, and another person committed a “heinous crime” and is in prison for life.
“These individuals are high-utilizers. They use up the most resources and take up the most time, but we’re not getting anywhere with them,” Elam said. “They typically don’t acknowledge that they have a mental illness. They typically don’t go for treatment. They’re very non-compliant most of the time and these individuals ... can become very dangerous when they’re really, really sick and so that becomes a safety issue in our community.”
Assisted Outpatient Treatment aims to fix that, Elam said. The courts and mental health systems will work through intensive case management to improve individuals’ quality of life and care received. A staff member would work on an individualized plan to help make sure they get to appointments, take medications, find an apartment and sign up for services like food stamps and Medicaid. Individuals would receive services from Vera French Mental Health Center. The goal is to break the cycle of homelessness, incarceration and hospitalization.
“It’s going to take some time, but hopefully we can get them stable and on the road to recovery,” Elam said.
Participation in the program would be court-ordered and led by one Lead AOT Monitor and one Peer Support person, with the hopes of growing the program after the first year.
Also, members of the program will meet with a “judicial referee” weekly or bi-weekly to encourage the members, Elam said, with a goal of providing some motivation for the program participants and help them develop some trust and respect for the court systems.
The program will serve up to 15 individuals in the first year with a budget of about $268,000, according to a county memo. Iowa’s Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organization has agreed to fund about $148,400 of the Scott County program, Elam said Tuesday, and the judicial branch and Vera French have also committed funding to the program.
Elam said the staff also applied for a federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant, but they won’t hear back on the application until the end of August.
Scott County would be the second county in Iowa to implement an assisted outpatient treatment program. Johnson County has a voluntary program.
In Scott County, it will be court-ordered. If a participant continues to be non-compliant, Elam said, they would be picked up and taken back to the hospital.
Elam said the program would also help the county save money in the long run if the individuals need fewer Scott County MEDIC ambulance services, spend less time in jail, receive fewer mental health commitments from the county attorney and have fewer pick-ups from the sheriff’s office.
“It’s a wonderful program in terms of helping some of our very sick individuals get on the right track and be in recovery, but it’s also helping the county in multiple departments save money in the long run,” Elam said.
The program is not long-term. After 12 months participating, community services staff will reevaluate the individual’s progress and then discharge them at 18 months to other programs.
Elam acknowledged they may not be able to help everyone, or some may continue to refuse treatment.
“We’re not going to be able to save everybody, but we’re definitely going to give it a try,” Elam said.
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