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Add this phone number to your phone…

submitted by 5 Healthy Towns

by Erin Spanier, originally published in Connected Magazine

One number, 734-544-3050, should be added to address books all across the county. It the CARES access number for mental health and substance use treatment services offered by Washtenaw County Community Mental Health.

The number may be needed at 3:00 am on a Monday, during kickoff on Homecoming weekend, or 6:00 pm on a Sunday. In fact, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year–the phones at Washtenaw County Community Mental Health are staffed and CARES social workers, therapists, peer-specialists, and psychiatrists are on standby to offer Crisis response services, Access to mental health services, Resource connections, Engagement with community partners, and Support for individual needs.

Middle and high school teachers should have kids take out their phones and program it in during math class. Anyone who lost a loved one, struggled with addiction, or experienced mental health challenges and had difficulty finding help should post it on the fridge right now. 

These staff aren’t exclusively for residents with severe needs or critical emergencies; they’re for everyone, in every one of the county townships. That wasn’t always the case. 

Washtenaw County Community Mental Health, like community mental health agencies all across the state, has been contending with major state funding reductions that don’t even come close to covering the cost of mandated services.

For several years, those cuts led to diminished services, but, thanks to the eight-year Public Safety and Mental Health Millage which was passed by Washtenaw County voters last fall by a two to one margin, Washtenaw County Community Mental Health administrators began to extend services to more residents, all across the county. 

As we write this, only eight months since Washtenaw County millage dollars first became available, the list of services is long and growing. And, the list of success stories is following suit. 

Residents have been referred to community psychologists for short-term counseling to contend with a loss. They’ve been able to access enough prescribed medicines to cover until they could get to see their doctors. They’ve gotten same-day appointments with behavioral health specialists and primary care providers; help filling out insurance, housing, and food applications; advice from peers with lived experience; and rides to necessary appointments. In sum, we provide dozens of different support services at little or no cost to clients. 

“Millage-funded staff expansions have allowed Washtenaw County Community Mental Health to respond to 800 more crisis service requests in the first six months of 2019–from January to June–than the agency did during the same time frame last year, and we’ve received 250 referrals in a two month period for other services,” says Program Administrator Melisa Tasker. “It been such an honor to speak with and serve residents all across the county and we’re looking forward to announcing many more program and system improvements in the years ahead.” 

Where do Washtenaw County residents go to get these services? To Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, of course, but also to rural sites across the county. 

Through agreements with local organizations Washtenaw County Community Mental Health administrators are placing staff at external facilities with no cost to taxpayers. Residents are now getting free and low-cost assistance for mental health and substance use needs in Chelsea and Dexter. Soon, residents will be able to meet with community mental health staff in Manchester and Whitmore Lake as well. 

Editor note: Since the original publication of this article, CARES case workers began seeing Manchester residents on Tuesday between 8:30 am and 5 pm in the lower level of the Village of Manchester Building, 912 City Road, up until the stay-at-home order went into effect.

According to Chelsea Police Chief Ed Toth, “Thirty years ago, you might deal with a mental health crisis a few times a year. Now it a weekly situation. We’re a small agency here, usually a couple of people covering a shift and that all. But every time I’ve called the CARES hotline, the response team has been super for us.” 

To learn more about current and planned millage-funded public safety and mental health services for Washtenaw County residents, visit Washtenaw.org/2806/Public-Safety-and-Mental-Health-Millage. 

by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and a founder of the Manchester Mirror.