Sep 16, 2015 3 min read

The first agency within Washington County government to run out of money since the state budget impasse began July 1 has asked the commissioners to approve a stopgap measure so that it can continue to serve the public.

Behavioral Health and Developmental Services deals with mental health, providing services to adults, children and adolescents, and those with intellectual disabilities; early intervention; and help with emergencies and crises, but money is getting tight without state funds that should have been arriving since July in the form of a block grant.

Jason Bercini, the county’s fiscal manager for human services, told the commissioners Wednesday that Southwest Behavioral Health Management Inc. of New Castle has ridden to the rescue, bearing a grant with a $200,000 cap. “This is a way to advance funds to pay for services,” Bercini explained.

Dave McAdoo, executive director Southwest Behavioral Health, explained, “We are the Health Choices program, a Medicaid behavioral health insurance program” for a nine-county area that includes Washington. “We just assist the counties in being able to manage this program.”

He described having the cash on-hand at this time as “a fluke. We’re calling it a refundable grant.”

The grant would be repayable once the state budget impasse is resolved.

Washington County Behavioral Health and Developmental Services has about 25 employees who continue to be paid while the state lacks a 2015-16 spending plan, but the agency needs some financial shoring-up to provide services to approximately 7,000 clients.

McAdoo called the $200,000 “a small amount of dollars in reserve that we’re able to loan out to the agencies because we know many of them are hitting a crisis point.”

The county, if the commissioners approve the agenda item Thursday, will serve as a pass-through for the money because, McAdoo said, “We don’t have the relationship with the local nonprofits that provide services within the communities. We were hoping to do it quietly. It’s not much compared with the total program. We try and do whatever we can to support the counties.”

Jan Taper, administrator of Washington County Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, and Cheryl Andrews, executive director of the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission Inc., are members of the board of directors of Southwest Behavioral Health Management Inc.

Taper, who was attending a meeting Wednesday, wrote in response to an email, “These funds will keep services going for a little while longer.”

Crunch time for Behavioral Health and the Area Agency on Aging could come next month if the state remains without a budget.

“We’re hoping that the state kind of gets back to the table and gets things moving,” Bercini said after the commissioners’ agenda-setting session.