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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > July > 16 > Entry
Agencies partner to study dual diagnosis clients
Just received this press release from Butler County Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities:
A collaboration between the Butler County Board of MRDD and the Butler County Mental Health Board has resulted in a $50,000 grant to examine the needs of clients who are dually diagnosed with both a developmental disability and a mental illness.
The grant from The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati will lay the groundwork for organizational changes for both boards. Current projections indicate that around 1,750 children and adults in Butler County have both a developmental disability and a severe mental illness. Special expertise is required for providers to adequately assess, diagnose and treat those individuals.
“There is a greater need for a more system-wide program to change the whole behavioral health provider structure in Butler County to bring about greater awareness and responsiveness to treat this population,” said Scott Rasmus, Associate Executive Director of the Butler County Mental Health Board. “Developmental Disability programs need to become more attuned to the needs of the mental health clients and mental health programs need to be more familiar with the needs of the developmental disability clients.”
The grant money will be spent on research and planning efforts to develop an action plan to develop a treatment team to serve the dually-diagnosed population. The work will take place over the course of seven months and will conclude in early 2009. Once all of the research and planning is complete, the boards will apply for another grant with The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati for money to fund the treatment team’s future work.
The boards will work with two experts in the field: Dr. Joan Beasley, a nationally respected psychologist from the Center for Developmental Disabilities Evaluation and Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Jonas Thom from the Ohio Coordinating Center for ACT (Assertive Community Treatment).
“This project is the first phase of what will help assess, plan and develop more effective services and treatment for individuals that need support from both the MRDD and mental health systems. The goal is to help individuals live as independently and productively as possible as members of our community,” said Dennis Burger, Program Administrator with the Butler County Board of MRDD.
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