Tri-County Earns Community of Hope Grant

Tri-County Mental Health Services, Inc. has been awarded a contract through the Communities of Hope initiative to assess area mental health needs and form a plan to address those issues.  

TCMHS will receive $30,000, the maximum award from the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Only eight agencies in the state will receive these funds.  For more than 35 years TCMHS has been effectively involved in mental health and drug and alcohol treatment.  The agency is the primary provider of comprehensive behavioral health services to a community of more than 320,000 people. 

 For the Communities of Hope Initiative, TCMHS will work in conjunction with the 18 pre-existing prevention teams in Clay and Platte Counties along with the following agencies: 15 school districts, local, county, and state law enforcement,  MO National Guard DDR, Clay, Platte, and Ray County health departments as well as K.C. Health Dept., juvenile services, county prosecutors, local hospitals, Northland Dependency, Synergy Services, Northland Neighborhoods, and any other willing members of the community. The Northland and Ray County Coalitions will serve as “umbrella” coalitions for the local prevention teams.  Final plans will be submitted to the Missouri Department of Mental Health at the end of the contract period, July 2011, for possible funding.  At the end of the contract the coalition will have developed a strategic plan that can be implemented into the community.

Statewide, approximately 10.5 percent of residents suffer from a serious mental illness, according to DMH. Another 11 percent are alcohol dependent, 3 percent are drug dependent and 1.5 percent has had a significant developmental disability, the agency reports.   Sally King, Older Adult Care Coordinator at Tri-County and facilitator of the Aging and Mental Health Coalition of Kansas City North states: “We’re ecstatic to be involved in this grant which will be laying down the foundation for greater collaboration among Northland prevention entities and health and mental health agencies, aiming to serve people across the lifespan in need.

Communities of Hope is the cornerstone of the state’s efforts to transform its mental health system to make it more responsive to actual need by using a public health model of service delivery, according to DMH.   This initiative is funded through a federal grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration. Missouri is one of nine states selected to receive this funding. The state has a five-year grant, which ends Sept. 30, 2011.

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Tri-County Mental Health Services, 3100 NE 83rd St., Suite 1001, Kansas City, MO 64119-9998
Telephone: (816) 468-0400 Fax: (816) 468-6635 • 24-Hour Emergency Service Crisis Line 1-888-279-8188
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