Bannock County approves juvenile treatment pass-through funds and joins crisis intervention collaborative

Matt Olsen, director of Bannock County Juvenile Justice, told the Board of County Commissioners on July 1 that the county will sign a pass-through agreement with the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections to receive two funding streams to close treatment gaps for youth.

Olsen said one pot, called Substance Abuse Delivery Services (SUDS), covers substance-abuse treatment for young people who lack Medicaid or other insurance and for services that cannot be billed to Medicaid. "Last year, we received $122,654. This year's allocation will be a little less than that. It's $121,158," Olsen said. He said most of the SUDS money will be spent on residential treatment and that recent Medicaid guidance allowing braided funding means Medicaid can cover the treatment portion while the pass-through funds pay residential expenses; he said residential beds can cost "about $400 per night." The commissioners approved the pass-through-funds recipient agreement by voice vote.

The second funding stream, County-Based Alternate Services (CBAS), Olsen said, is intended to provide community-based services as alternatives to commitment to the Department of Juvenile Corrections. He said CBAS is being used to pay for offender-specific counseling and related costs that previously were borne by probation fees. "That can be anywhere between $2,000 and $4,000 a year, depending on whether Medicaid helps pay for some of that — maybe up to $5,000 in some cases that pays for the treatment and polygraphs," Olsen said.

Olsen told commissioners the county has used these pass-through funds for years and that the money helps cover treatment for youth who otherwise could not afford residential or outpatient services. Commissioners asked about local providers; Olsen said the county currently uses three vendors in the Department of Juvenile Corrections network for SUDS and that offender-specific treatment is provided via a Twin Falls provider that offers telehealth and monthly in-person visits because there is no local provider.

Separately, commissioners voted to sign a nonbinding memorandum of understanding to join a regional Crisis Intervention Team Collaborative (CITC), an effort led by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to bring together law enforcement, treatment providers and other partners to coordinate care for people in behavioral-health crisis. Olsen described the collaborative as a best-practice forum that meets biweekly and sometimes staffs cases to help get people into treatment rather than into the criminal-justice system. "The idea is making sure that we're working with people in crisis where mental health is the primary cause of that crisis to get them into services," he said. He said the juvenile component will be relatively new in the county's region and that Health and Welfare staff did not cite a statutory mandate; the work is considered a best practice used in other districts.

The board approved both items during the meeting. The motions were recorded as voice votes; individual recorded tallies were not provided in the meeting transcript.

Why it matters: The pass-through funds and collaborative aim to expand treatment options for youth and to increase coordination among agencies responding to behavioral-health crises. County officials said the funds close payment gaps for youth without Medicaid and help the county avoid costs it once paid from probation fees.

Next steps: The county will sign the pass-through agreement and the nonbinding memorandum; staff will continue to coordinate with Health and Welfare and regional providers to place youth in treatment and bring a juvenile component into the CITC.