Sedgwick County applies for roughly $11M in state grants to fund crisis services

Sedgwick County officials told commissioners they have submitted two grant applications to the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services to help pay for community crisis services.

The applications cover funding for facility-based crisis services at the Comcare Community Crisis Center and for mobile crisis response teams. The agenda lists a grant application of $9,480,592 for the Community Crisis Center (staff narrative described a $9,480,000 request) and a separate application of $1,418,598 for mobile crisis response. County managers said the state will determine final awards and may renew funding for a second year.

Why it matters: County leaders said the crisis center and mobile teams reduce higher-cost outcomes — hospital stays, jail bookings and emergency-room visits — by offering 24/7 land‑based and mobile responses. The county emphasized that a large share of people served are uninsured or underinsured and that state funding helps cover care for those residents.

Tim Kaufman of the County Manager’s Office, presenting for Comcare, said KDADS moved to a request-for-application process this year to get full-cost reports from community mental health centers across the state. He said the state asked counties to report total crisis-service costs minus revenue and mobile-crisis costs when applying for facility funding. "Our application grant total is $10,900,000 and then we offset that with some revenue and some other funding," Kaufman said, describing how the application was compiled. The county’s submitted grant request for facility-based crisis services was described on the agenda as $9,480,592 and in the presentation as $9,480,000.

Kaufman said the Community Crisis Center has operated since 2015 and that the state-funded portion historically covered about $1.5 million annually through 2024; the county requested an increase for fiscal 2025 because KDADS broadened its funding to more centers. He also said $500,000 of the facility grant would be contracted to Substance Abuse Center of Kansas for sobering and detox services. The county asked commissioners to authorize acceptance of any awarded funds and to allow budget authority for the grant term.

On mobile crisis response, Kaufman said Comcare operates eight mobile crisis teams dispatched from the crisis center, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an average response time of 32 minutes. He said the teams aim to treat people in place and avoid hospitalization or jail; about 57% of people served by mobile teams are uninsured. The county’s mobile crisis application seeks $1,418,598 to cover those costs; the county currently receives about $400,000 from KDADS for mobile crisis services and is seeking additional state support.

Commission action: Commissioners voted unanimously to approve staff’s recommended actions to submit the applications, accept awards if made, authorize the chair or designee to sign grant documents and to establish budget authority for the grant terms.

Next steps: The county expects KDADS to announce awards on or about April 1, 2025. Kaufman and Comcare staff told the commission that the grant applications reflect current crisis operations and plan for future changes, including a forthcoming expanded crisis facility.