Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center has received a $10,000 mini-grant from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, the KDADS announced.

KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett announced Tuesday the awarding of $433,000 in grants and mini-grants to establish community-based diversion programs to address communities’ behavioral health needs.

Sharon Zehr, Bert Nash homeless outreach and jail team leader, said in an email that Bert Nash will use the grant money to increase collaborative efforts with the Lawrence Community Shelter.

“Funds will be used to be able to provide mental health services on site at LCS in order to target at-risk guests of the shelter who present with a severe mental illness,” Zehr said.

The goal of the program will be to reduce the number of admissions to state and local psychiatric facilities of homeless individuals by early identification, assessment and intervention of mental health needs and diverting them to less restrictive services, she said.

Some of the funds will be used as flex funds to assist clients to pay for things such as medication, clothing and obtaining identification documents, Zehr said.

“Bert Nash and LCS have been having ongoing conversations about providing this service at LCS due to the increase in numbers of homeless individuals being sent to state and inpatient psychiatric facilities and thought this would be a good way to implement such a program,” she said.

Bruffett said in a press release: “Our goal in awarding these grants is to help communities create effective crisis response systems, provide early intervention of mental illness and substance use disorder issues, and prevent such issues from arising. The grantees have proposed programs designed to develop solutions to help people with behavioral health challenges to have increased access to local services.”

The creation of the diversion grants was one of the recommendations made by the Governor’s Mental Health Task Force last year. The funding was made available through the 2015 Governor’s Budget Amendment. This grant program is designed to create community programs that will:

• Provide behavioral health education and training to various community sectors.
• Aim to divert individuals at risk of entering in-patient or out-patient mental health or substance use disorder treatment facilities or correctional institutions.
• Address the reduction of risk factors and increase the availability of protective factors for individuals and families.
• Build recovery capacity to best support the members of the community in receiving appropriate services and support for behavioral health in the community where they live.

Bruffett said that communities and the state should help create conditions that promote positive mental health and emotional well-being and prevent the further onset of severe mental illnesses and emotional problems.

“This requires partnerships between families, state and community agencies, and service providers,” Bruffett said. “We also want to strengthen our partnerships within the law enforcement community and criminal justice system.”

Other area grantees include Valeo Behavioral Health of Topeka, $90,004; and Preferred Family Healthcare Inc., in Olathe, $67,244.

Both the large grants and mini-grants are to be used for projects that assist communities in the development and implementation of community-based diversion programs. The mini-grant projects focus on training, community outreach and education. The larger projects are more extensive in nature, providing resources that work within local communities and law enforcement to offer alternatives to diverting individuals to services available at the community level, avoiding admission to state mental hospitals and incarceration.