New Funding Provides Minnesota Statewide Mobile Mental Health Crisis Services

Mental health crisis services provided in a person’s home will soon be available in all parts of the state through more than $13.6 million in mobile mental health crisis grants recently awarded to local service providers by the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

The funding, which includes an additional $3 million provided by the 2015 Legislature, makes  services available to children and adults in all 87 counties. Two tribal nations – the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the Red Lake Nation – will now provide their own services. Although much of Minnesota has had mobile crisis services for years, in large geographic areas of the state these services were not available.

“When people are in crisis, they need the right help right away,” said Human Services Commissioner Emily Johnson Piper. “Mobile mental health crisis services provide that help to people wherever they are. Sometimes people need to go to the hospital, and sometimes other mental health services would be more appropriate. With these grants, mental health teams can offer that flexibility statewide.”

Mobile crisis services are mental health teams who offer psychiatric services to individuals at home and at other locations outside the traditional clinical setting. The teams provide a rapid response and will work to assess the individual, resolve crises and link people to needed services.

Research has shown that not only are mobile crisis services effective at keeping people in crisis from needing psychiatric hospitalization, they are also better than hospitalization at linking people in crisis to outpatient services and are effective in finding hard-to-reach individuals. As a result, four out of five people who receive mobile mental health services do not go to the hospital.

In 2015, Minnesota had 27 crisis teams available to provide mobile mental health crisis services to adults and children, their families or guardians and supporters. That number will increase to 34 with the new grants. Many areas will have expanded coverage, and several counties that previously were not covered — Kandiyohi, Meeker, Renville, Chippewa, Swift, Lac Qui Parle, and McLeod — will now receive services. Aitkin County will add children’s services.

Hours of coverage vary with most teams providing services after hours and weekends. The Department of Human Services plans to have all teams available 24/7 by 2018.

The increased grant money was included in $46 million new mental health funding approved by the 2015 Legislature for the 2016-2017 biennium. It was the largest investment in state history to create a more seamless and comprehensive system of mental health care in all parts of the state. The grants for mobile crisis are one part of a range of additional crisis services that over the next four years will include increasing the availability of crisis beds and a statewide crisis number.

 “We need to create a continuum of care for mental health, one where people have access to the right care at the right time,” said Johnson Piper. “Mobile crisis services are one important piece to that.”

Counties, multi-county regions and tribal governments receiving mental health crisis grants for 2016:

• Aitkin, Cass, Crow Wing,  Morrison, Todd and Wadena counties, $708,770
• Anoka County, $363,920
• Becker County and the White Earth Nation, $370,000
• Beltrami, Clearwater, Hubbard and Lake of the Woods counties, $530,710
• Benton, Sherburne, Stearns and Wright counties, $819,350
• Big Stone, Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens and Traverse counties, $742,465
• Blue Earth, Brown, Faribault, Freeborn, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Rice, Sibley and Watonwan counties, $848,370
• Carlton, Cook, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake, and St Louis counties, $1,245,260
• Carver, Scott  and McLeod counties, $971,405
• Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs and Pine counties, $485,750
• Clay, Otter Tail and Wilkin counties. $879,000
• Cottonwood, Jackson, Nobles, Rock and Pipestone counties, $372,900
• Dakota County, $294,791
• Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Steele, Wabasha, Waseca and Winona counties, $919,780
• Hennepin County, $742,840
• Kandiyohi, Meeker, Renville, Chippewa, Swift and Lac Qui Parle counties, $513,220
• Kittson, Mahnomen, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake and Roseau counties, $880,590
• Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, $106,280
• Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Redwood and Yellow Medicine counties, $394,380
• Ramsey County, $512,670
• Red Lake Nation, $289,060
• Washington County, $222,880
• MetrCCS –Metro Children’s Crisis Services, $74,750 (seven metro area counties).