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Health and behavioral-health briefings: staff cuts, opioid grant-funded programming and crisis services
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Summary
The Health Department announced an HFI-funded receptionist position will be eliminated due to funding cuts; True Hope described opioid-grant-funded program expansion and a 24% client increase since August; Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare reported crisis-call volume and sought law-enforcement and school partnerships.
County health and social-service providers briefed commissioners on funding, staffing and local behavioral-health services. The Gibson County Health Department (speaker 8) said Health First Indiana (HFI) funding has been reduced and that one HFI-funded receptionist/secretary position will be eliminated effective Dec. 31; staff said the change is driven by funding rather than employee misconduct and that the union will be notified according to contractual notice provisions. Commissioners voted to authorize the 90-day union notification and indicated support for helping the affected employee find alternative placement.
Julie Piper (director of True Hope, speaker 9) reported the organization received an opioid-related grant from unrestricted funds in 2025 and used some funds for staff training at Heartbeat International; she said program monitors and a Bright Course program were added, and reported a 24% increase in clients since August and that roughly 30% of families served are impacted by substance use. Piper invited commissioners to visit True Hope and to consider continued partnership.
Katie Adams (president and CEO of Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare, speaker 11) presented an annual report, noting the agency is a CCBHC pilot in Indiana and that the Princeton office served 823 individuals last year and handled 187 crisis calls from Gibson County. Adams described mobile crisis services, residential addiction bed days and open-access intake improvements, and asked for partnership with local law enforcement and school systems for crisis response and school-based services.
Commissioners asked for copies of partnership agreements and directed staff to follow up on coordination opportunities; no new funding commitments were made at the meeting.
