Committee approves two Whole Health funding items: court-based mental health staff and downtown outreach worker contract

Tompkins County’s Health and Human Services Committee voted March 19 to accept two Whole Health Department funding measures: a funded social-work position tied to court-based mental-health services and a joint city–county payment to support outreach workers in downtown Ithaca.

The first resolution authorized acceptance of funds and a budget adjustment to create one licensed clinical social-work position for court-based mental-health services (Whole Health department ID 13170). County staff told the committee that the position is covered by ongoing funding from the Office of Mental Health and that first-year startup costs would include equipment and program expenses. Committee discussion included a brief history of county support for mental-health staffing and a vote to pass the resolution.

The second resolution accepted $65,000 from the City of Ithaca to be included in the county budget to support an outreach-worker program operated by REACH Medical (Whole Health department ID 13168). Ross Milne of Whole Health described the arrangement: “Both parties are putting in $65,000 to support operations of the outreach worker program in 2025.” Committee members pressed whether the Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA) would contribute funding and asked for quarterly performance reporting. Whole Health staff said quarterly contract reporting and performance measures will be collected and shared with the legislature.

Both measures moved forward at the committee meeting; members expressed support for the outreach program’s focus on the commons but several said they would like the outreach to cover a larger area if additional funding becomes available. The committee asked staff to continue to coordinate with REACH, the city and downtown stakeholders and to provide quarterly outcome reports.