County accepts $245,000 MCR grant to add two crisis‑response positions; commissioners pressed funding durability

Johnson County mental health officials told the Board of County Commissioners on Aug. 14 they received a Mobile Crisis Response (MCR) grant from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and recommended accepting $245,000 to fund two positions: one case manager for the Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) and one clinician for the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT). Tanner Fortney of the Mental Health Center said the MCRT provides a step‑down response for people in crisis who do not require law enforcement or med act services; the county’s co‑responder model and MCRT are designed to de‑escalate calls and connect individuals to services. Fortney said MCRT is a CCBHC‑required service and the county must maintain it. He described current capacity limits: MCRT has five staff who must operate in pairs, which leaves only one full team per shift; to maintain safe pairing the county currently pulls staff from MCOT, reducing outreach capacity. That staffing pattern contributed to a 95% response rate in 2024 when unanswered calls are excluded, but an 80.5% response rate when unanswered calls are counted (calls not responded to at all, e.g., because teams were engaged elsewhere). Fortney said the grant will fund the two positions through state fiscal year 2026; because the positions were not budgeted in FY2025 the county must reclassify $87,900 of mental health reserve authority to provide spending authority this fiscal year. He said the grant covers the full cost in year one and that the positions will be funded through CCBHC revenue thereafter because they are a CCBHC licensing requirement; Fortney cautioned he cannot guarantee any funding is permanent but said he expects CCBHC support to continue in the near term. Commissioners praised the tiered crisis model and asked technical questions about the reserve reclassification and long‑term funding. Commissioner Ashcraft asked about the rising number of crisis calls and whether the CCBHC funding stream is durable; Fortney said reductions could occur in future federal/state funding scenarios but said he does not expect CCBHC to disappear and that the positions are likely to remain because they are a licensing requirement. No formal board action was taken Aug. 14; staff recommended the item be placed on the Aug. 21 agenda for formal acceptance and authorization to add the positions and reclassify reserves.