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Coochiching County approves five-year purchase of CredibleMinds mental-health platform using federal COVID funds
Summary
The Coochiching County Board approved a $36,450 lump-sum purchase to fund five years of CredibleMinds, an evidence-based digital mental-health platform, to be rolled out countywide and shared with local health partners. The platform will be paid from federal COVID-19 relief funds and include quarterly anonymous usage reporting.
Coochiching County commissioners approved an initial purchase-of-service agreement on Feb. 11 to bring the CredibleMinds digital mental-health platform to the county for five years, with a lump-sum cost of $36,450 to be paid from federal COVID-19 relief funds.
The county’s public health staff said CredibleMinds is a curated, evidence-based portal that gives residents assessments, self‑help tools and links to local behavioral-health resources. Tara Besh, Public Health Supervisor, told commissioners the county expects the platform to be anonymous and to provide quarterly, aggregate usage data that public health staff will use for planning and evaluation.
The funding will come from federal COVID dollars that must be spent within the program timeline, county staff said. Linnea Imhoff, Public Health Educator, described the platform as a way to provide low-barrier, community-wide supports — for example, guided exercises, meditation and vetted apps — for people who do not require or cannot access immediate clinical therapy.
Because the platform will produce only aggregate, non‑identifiable trends (for example, counts of which assessments are used), the county expects to receive periodic data reports to guide future work and potential outside funding. Commissioners asked about sustainability after five years and were told staff plan to use the five-year window to build local partnerships and pursue additional grants or payer support if the tool demonstrates value.
Commissioners expressed broad support for the purchase and asked staff to return with regular updates once the platform begins collecting data. The motion to approve the purchase passed by voice vote.
