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Sedgwick County staff asked commissioners on Oct. 21 to include several behavioral-health and developmental-disability items in the county's legislative platform.

Comcare's association requested an additional $4,000,000 in FY2027 for community mental-health-center (CMHC) contract funding, plus money to address behavioral-health workforce shortages and to sustain certification and planning models such as the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model. Staff said the CCBHC model has produced gains the county wants to preserve and that the county should "support the association's request" in a manner consistent with narrowing priorities.

CDDO (the county's community developmental disability organization) asked the county to support Interhab's request, which staff summarized as: (1) invest in behavioral-health supports for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities by funding pilots and expanding crisis-response capacity including state institutional alternatives and local stabilization beds; (2) restore lost CDDO administrative funding by carrying a 2.4% increase in the FY26 base budget; (3) restore lost state funding for community-based services; and (4) transition targeted case-management reimbursement to an encounter-based model with an appropriately calculated rate to improve access to clinical case management services.

Commissioners discussed whether language should be specific (dollar amounts) or supportive of association priorities without drafting formal bills. Rusty (county staff) and others suggested the commission could adopt language expressing support for the associations' requests and allow county staff to support them in the legislature without the county writing a standalone bill.

Closing note: Commissioners agreed to keep Comcare/CDDO/Interhab items on the platform in supportive form, but not to elevate them all to short-session bill requests; staff will confirm any specific dollar amounts and report back.