Grant Will Expand Services At Hancock County Stabilization Center
(From Hancock County ADAMHS)
Hancock County has been awarded a $550,000 federal Bureau of Justice grant to expand services at a local residential center that provides stabilization and recovery support services for those with mental health and substance use disorders.
The 3-year grant comes through the Bureau’s Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. The Board of Hancock County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services will administer the grant, and contract with the Family Resource Center of Northwest Ohio to implement it along with other community partners.
FRC operates the Steady Path Stabilization Center at 2627 Crystal Avenue in Findlay. The center opened in 2022 and is a 24/7 monitored, short-term, step-down, and diversion residential home that provides a safe place for stabilization services for individuals with persistent mental health concerns and those with co-occurring substance use disorders.
Precia Stuby is director of the ADAMHS Board of Hancock County.
In addition to mental health services, Steady Path offers programming designed to help transition individuals from higher levels of care, such as psychiatric hospitalization and incarceration, to supportive outpatient services
The federal grant was sought to help address a growing need for stabilization services in the community for those who have encountered the justice system and are leaving the county jail or other custodial settings. The grant will help fund the Steady Path Forward Project, a collaboration between ADAMHS, FRC and criminal justice partners, including the Findlay Police Department, Hancock County Sheriff’s Office and Hancock County Adult Probation.
National estimates indicate that over half of all individuals in jail or prison have a mental health problem and are likely to stay locked up longer and return to incarceration more often.
Locally, about one in every six inmates at the Hancock County jail are on psychotropic medications and about one in two inmates have been returned to jail four or more times. Only about 30 percent of inmates are first-time offenders.
The objectives of the grant, which builds upon a 2020 grant that supported the establishment of the Steady Path, are three-fold: to enhance and expand the center; expand the capacity to identify, treat and support the recovery of individuals at the “intersection of justice and mental health,” and grow existing justice and mental health collaboration programs “across people and places at any point in the criminal justice system.”
Since Steady Path opened last year, it has received 398 referrals with 235 enrollments completed. With the new grant, officials hope to serve at least 150 individuals at the Steady Path over the next 36 months.