Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities tagged posts

How Communities Can Fund Mental Health Services

Funding local mental health and substance use disorder programs and services is an ongoing challenge. Although the federal government allocates money to support mental health care in the states, federal spending on public health has been eroded through funding cuts and budget caps. State governments haven’t done any better. However, over the past couple of decades, state legislatures have been empowering counties and municipalities to create their own revenue, whether through a local sales tax or property tax.

Sales tax in Washington State
Like many other counties in Washington State, Snohomish County adopted a 1/10th of 1% sales tax to support mental health and substance use disorders services. Since 2010, these funds have been used to support a range of direct and wrap-around services for six target populations: youth, families with children, veterans and their families, the aging population, the most vulnerable, and the most costly (i.e., high utilizers).

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A Success Story from Snohomish County

Families for Depression Awareness

In the post above, we used the example of Snohomish County, Washington, of using a designated sales tax to fund mental health services. Here is an example of how funds are used and how they made the difference in one case.

Among many programs, the Snohomish County sales tax funds the Student Support Advocate Program, which provides “intensive case management services to at-risk middle and high school students to connect and engage students and their families with needed resources (mental health and substance use disorder treatment, housing resources and homeless prevention services, food and other basic needs, etc.).” In 2015, the results included the following:

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