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North Texas Behavioral Health Authority outlines services, county match and reporting concerns
Summary
NTBHA officials told Kaufman County commissioners they now run dozens of programs across the region and serve more than 2,000 unduplicated clients in the county; NTBHA asked the county to cover an annual match estimated at about $449,000 and agreed to return to finalize a new MOU and follow-up reporting processes.
The North Texas Behavioral Health Authority told the Kaufman County Commissioners Court on March 31 that it has expanded services across the region and now operates dozens of programs that reach Kaufman residents.
"We now have a $175,000,000 budget," NTBHA representative Miss Karalucky said, describing aggressive grant-seeking that has grown the authority from a small operation into a multi-million-dollar regional system. She said NTBHA operates roughly 75 independently run programs under 38–39 different funding streams and targets people at or below 150% of the poverty metric who have serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance.
NTBHA reported serving 2,061 unduplicated people in Kaufman County for the month cited on the authority's slides. The presenter said the agency's largest contract is the local mental health authority performance agreement with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which the presenter described as a large award that includes a required regional match for counties. "Total amount awarded is 80,000,000 and then the agency award, we get actually 74 and they expect us to come up with about $6,000,000 match," Miss Karalucky said in the presentation materials and remarks.
County officials asked for clarity about what Kaufman County receives in return for local funding. Miss Karalucky said Kaufman County's share of the match across the system would be $449,000 per year and that the authority is asking roughly $2.16–$2.17 (described in the presentation as the county's match figure). The court asked NTBHA to return within weeks to meet with county staff and attorneys to review services, the MOU (last signed in 2022) and reporting expectations.
Why it matters: Commissioners pay local match dollars and need clearer reporting to verify that residents referred by county agencies are receiving services. The court asked NTBHA for a follow-up meeting and a new memorandum of understanding so county staff can compare the written agreement to the services the authority described.
The authority also outlined specific programs offered in Kaufman County — hospital step-down supports, transition specialists, a 'living room' crisis alternative, police drop-off programs, mobile crisis outreach, a youth crisis outreach team, jail assessments and care coordination, pharmacy assistance and a telehealth network — and named local partners including Terrell State Hospital and several school districts and provider agencies. NTBHA said some specialized grants are restricted to particular counties, which affects where certain services operate.
