Judge Jeffrey Reed presides over the Allen County Mental Health Court.
File photo | The Lima News
COLUMBUS — More than $80,000 in federal grant funding has been awarded to the Allen County Common Pleas Mental Health Court, the Office of Criminal Justice Services announced Wednesday.
The local judge who presides over that specialized court docket called the announcement a combination of “good news” and “late news.”
Judge Jeffrey Reed said an application for the grant was submitted nearly nine months ago, with the intent of using any funds awarded to cover the cost for mental health court administrators and staffers to attend a national mental health conference in California.
Remaining grant funds, the judge said, were to be used to defray costs of overtime hours for probation officers and other program enhancements for the specialty court docket.
Reed, along with probation officers and other members of the court’s treatment team, ultimately attended the conference in May. The cost of the conference was paid with funds obtained from other sources.
A few weeks ago, Reed said, “we decided we wouldn’t participate in this year’s grant cycle” through the federal Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program. Officials at the state and federal level were notified of that decision.
Reed on Wednesday admittedly was surprised to learn funding for the Allen County Mental Health Court had nonetheless been approved in the amount of $82,412.98.
“We really don’t want it (the grant) anymore, but we will look into seeing if we can use the money for other resources” separate from those listed in the original application, Reed said.
Participants in mental health court have been convicted of non-violent, low-level felonies that likely would not have occurred if not for some level of mental illness.
Asked if the need for the specialized court has grown in recent years, Reed carefully crafted his answer.
“I’m not sure the need has increased, but maybe our awareness has increased. Both Judge (Terri) Kohlrieser and myself have a greater awareness of the specialized needs of some defendants. We work with them, and our probation officers work a lot of evenings and weekends to help these people,” he said.
In a related announcement, 10 mobile crisis response teams across Ohio were tabbed to share in $2.3 million in federal grant funding.
Included in that total is $199,188.98 awarded to the Allen County Mental Health Addiction Recovery Board of Allen-Auglaize-Hardin counties. Funding is earmarked to support programming at Coleman Behavioral Health.
Mental Health & Recovery Services Board Executive Director Tammie Colon could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
