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Clermont County official outlines mental-health levy renewal and services at Milford council meeting
Summary
Leanne Watson, executive director of the Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board, told Milford council the levy on the Nov. 4 ballot is a 0.75-mill renewal that brings in about $3.3 million annually and funds crisis hotline, mobile crisis teams, treatment for serious mental illness and a proposed crisis receiving center.
Leanne Watson, executive director of the Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board, told the Milford City Council on Oct. 7 that a 0.75-mill renewal levy on the Nov. 4 ballot would not raise taxes but would continue existing funding for behavioral-health services in the county.
"It is a 0.75 renewal which means no new taxes. So our levy is, the cost of that is $15 per 100,000. And that levy brings in $3,300,000 into our system every year, and that is it is over a third of our budget. So our budget is a little bit under $8,000,000 a year," Watson said.
Watson said levy funds support a range of services: a crisis hotline, a mobile crisis team, mental-health services for adults with serious and persistent mental illness, Medicaid treatment for opioid-use disorder, and a safety net for residents without insurance or with high deductibles. She told council county services reach about 25,000 residents annually, or roughly one in five.
Watson said the pandemic and subsequent trends have driven much higher demand for behavioral-health services, particularly among youth. She cited local trends presented to council: a 53% increase in crisis-service use since 2020 and a roughly 42% increase in calls from youth aged 17 and under.
Watson also described a planned crisis receiving center, intended to function like an urgent-care site for behavioral-health crises where first responders can drop off people in crisis for immediate assessment and connection to treatment. She said the center would be funded in part by county opioid-settlement money and levy funds.
Council asked no recorded follow-up motions at the meeting. Watson left informational materials and directed interested residents to the board's website for more details.
Ending
If approved by voters, the renewal would continue a funding stream that the Clermont board says supports the county's crisis hotline, mobile crisis services and other behavioral-health programs. The levy is on the Nov. 4 ballot; no city action was required at the Oct. 7 meeting.
