Perhaps it’s your elderly parent, feeling lonely after losing their spouse or seeing close friends pass away. It could be your neighbor who served in the military, and uses drugs and alcohol to cope with the trauma they experienced.
As healthcare providers, parents, and people who have faced our own challenges, we know mental health and addiction issues do not discriminate based on race, wealth, gender or geography. That is why we serve on the Butler County Mental Health and Addiction Services (MHARS) Board, and why we are asking you to help us continue serving the community by voting for Issue 12.
Issue 12 will allow the MHARS Board to keep funding the incredible network of mental health and addiction treatment providers we have here in Butler County. Each year, more than 40,000 residents use services supported by the MHARS Board. The MHARS Board has not asked the public for new operating dollars since 2006 – back when we still had separate mental health and addiction recovery boards. Since then, use of MHARS-funded services has increased by more than six-fold.
The increased demand for our services is driven by many things, including financial stress, the aftershocks of the COVID pandemic, and an ongoing drug crisis. Over the past two years, Butler County’s suicide rate has reached a 20-year high. Although the efforts of the MHARS Board and our providers have helped reduce drug overdose deaths, we still have far too many people dying from deadly street drugs.
Issue 12 will allow the board to keep and expand programs that Butler County residents count on. For example, the MHARS Board supports the Butler County Behavioral Health Crisis Line which is operated by Beckett Springs. The hotline is one of the most effective ways we have of reducing suicide deaths by connecting people in need to a caring voice or mobile crisis team. Butler County residents who need an emergency detox from drugs or alcohol can find help at Community Behavioral Health, which also offers ongoing treatment to sustain long term sobriety. The MHARS Board also funds programs that foster good mental health by building human connections, such as Catholic Charities’ senior companionship program, BIg Brothers and Sisters mentorship programs, and NAMI Butler County’s peer support groups.
Issue 12 is a new 0.5 mill property tax levy that will cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $13 more a year – or about $1 more a month. The MHARS Board voted to allow the old 1985 levy to expire before collecting on the new levy, which will begin in 2025. State law prevents revenue from property tax levies from increasing along with property values, so the cost of Issue 12 will not go up with the county’s new reappraisals.
Every day as healthcare providers and board members, we see what mental health and addiction recovery services do for Butler County. These programs help make our children more resilient, our struggling friends get through tough times, our veterans heal, and improve our aging parents’ quality of life. Issue 12 and the MHARS Board makes our entire county safer and stronger.
Leslie Berssenbruegge is a regional clinical director with Sunrise Treatment Center and a Butler County MHARS Board member.
Kim McKinney is a registered nurse and the President and Executive Committee Chair of the MHARS Board.
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