For years, the state of Kansas has partnered with a network of regional prevention centers to alert and connect people to mental health programs and those that prevent substance abuse, suicide and problem gambling.

But that network appears to be unraveling as state officials work toward implementing what they call a more holistic, data-driven approach.

The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services earlier this summer notified the state’s 10 regional prevention centers that their grants set to expire June 30 would not be renewed.

“They’re closed; their staffs have been laid off,” said Dulcinea Rakestraw, vice president of treatment services at Preferred Family Healthcare, a drug and alcohol treatment program with offices in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.

Rakestraw, who also serves as president of the Kansas Association of Addiction Professionals, supports the agency’s goals but has questions about the process KDADS is using to achieve them.

“All of us, I think, are looking forward to a more integrated approach,” she said. “Our reservation, however, is that the contracts ended in June and it’s already August. The old system is out, but there isn’t a new system to take its place. So there’s a piece that’s missing.”

The Kansas Family Partnership, a Topeka-based program best known for coordinating statewide campaigns aimed at preventing teen alcohol and drug use, is among the organizations losing their state grants. For Kansas Family Partnership, that’s a loss of $418,500.

“We are regrouping,” said Michelle Voth, the partnership’s executive director. “We are exploring other opportunities and doing some fundraising in hopes of filling in some other gaps in the system.”

Angela de Rocha, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, said state officials recognize that the transition period will be “uncomfortable for some.”

But, she said, the changes “are necessary to move forward.”

“KDADS’ No. 1 priority in all of this is to support community-level prevention work,” she said.

As part of that goal, KDADS is restructuring its prevention efforts to award the funding that had gone to the 10 regional prevention centers instead to local prevention efforts at the community level. Those community efforts are still in the planning stage, de Rocha said, so the funding has not yet been awarded.

“The new system is set up to work with those community prevention groups to make them more effective,” she said.

Through a competitive bidding process, KDADS selected the Center for Community Support and Research at Wichita State University to design the new behavioral health system. The process, which is being funded with a $684,997 KDADS grant, is expected to take about a year.

“This will evolve over the next year as we and other partners go through some thoughtful planning about prevention in the state of Kansas,” said Scott Wituk, the center’s executive director.

The process is separate from a recent review of the behavioral health system that focused on the state’s hospitals for Kansans with severe mental health issues.

Two other organizations will help the Wichita State center with planning and implementation. The Center for Learning Tree Institute in Girard, an affiliate of the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center at Greenbush, will use a $606,950 KDADS grant to collect and analyze data. DCCCA Inc., a Lawrence-based nonprofit, was awarded a $346,245 grant to develop and distribute training materials.

“We’re excited about this new approach, though all of us would agree, I think, that it remains to be seen what the results will be,” said Lori Alvarado, executive director at DCCCA.

Much of the technical assistance, Alvarado said, will involve making training materials available online and “brokering relationships” among community groups selected to play a role in the new system.

Several nonprofit organizations that help people with behavioral health problems access services are waiting to see what will happen to their state support.

Last year, the National Alliance on Mental Illness office in Kansas and Keys for Networking each received KDADS grants of $150,000. The agency renewed both grants this year but reduced them to $100,000.

“We’re not going to close, but we are looking for alternate funding sources,” said Jane Adams, executive director of Keys for Networking.

Rick Cagan, executive director of NAMI’s Kansas office, said the funding reduction could jeopardize the future of the organization.

“We cannot ignore losing $50,000 — that’s a third of our budget,” Cagan said. “We’ll either find a way to replace that money or we’ll hit the wall.”

Through the grant restructuring, which KDADS has yet to publicly announce, funding for Families Together was reduced from $243,000 in fiscal year 2015 to $100,000 in the current fiscal year. The program last year helped 3,000 Kansas families with children with developmental disabilities navigate the state’s often-complex school and health care systems.

“KDADS, back in April or May, asked us to send them a proposal for $100,000 that’s limited to only families that are Medicaid eligible,” said Connie Zienkewicz, executive director of Families Together.

Previously, the program’s services were available to families regardless of income.

“We have other funding streams for families that aren’t Medicaid eligible,” Zienkewicz said. But she said reductions in other state and federal funding will limit the number of people the organization can serve in the coming year.

“We’ll be seeing fewer families because we have fewer bodies (employees),” Zienkewicz said.

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. See more at: http://www.khi.org.