The Johnson County Mental Health Center wants to add 21 new full-time employees because the center faces ongoing “problematic” staffing levels.
Driving the news: At this week’s meeting, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners will consider approving $2.1 million for the center to add 21 new full-time employees.
- The $2.1 million would come out of the county’s mental health reserves.
What they would do: A meeting memo says the new positions would be broken down in the following way if they gained approval from the county:
- Eight case managers for adult services
- Three case managers for children and family services
- Four clinicians
- A quality and integrity clinical specialist
- Two team managers for case management teams
- A prevention manager who would help staff manage suicide prevention, substance use prevention and mental health promotion
- A staff development coordinator who would organize and facilitate staff training
- An emergency services team leader who would help staff with hospital screenings and other clinical assessments
Bigger picture at the Johnson County Mental Health Center
County officials say the mental health center needs to keep sufficient staffing levels in order to adequately meet client needs.
- These new additions would help the center maintain its Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) status —which is a nationally-used model for local health care centers like this one.
- The state of Kansas monitors a number of factors at the center to determine whether it can keep its license — some of which include the number of days it takes for a new client to get an initial evaluation and a client’s remission from depression 12 months after treatment.
- This week’s meeting agenda cites “problematic” staffing levels in adult services, as well as children and family children services.
- In September, the county approved the addition of six new chronic care and health integration positions to help address this.
