Just 20 percent of people on probation who have substance abuse problems get the help they need.
That’s a frightening statistic, recently given by Mark Stringer, director of the state’s Department of Mental Health.
Fortunately, Stringer isn’t the only one who understands the need for more community resources to address behavioral and substance abuse issues.
The Missouri Legislature last year passed a law creating the Justice Reinvestment Initiative Treatment Pilot. It will be done in Buchanan, Butler and Boone counties, and has the potential to expand after that.
As we reported in a Dec. 9 story, the program offers drug treatment, and other services, mainly for women in the three counties, who are on probation or parole and are at risk of going back to prison. The focus will be on individuals who are struggling on supervision for a variety of reasons, such as living in a home where drug abuse is taking place.
It creates formal relationship between the state’s Department of Corrections and Department of Mental Health.
Lawmakers created that program in hopes of avoiding far greater costs, in terms of both lives and money. Look only at the monetary side, the state risks paying $485 million to build and run two new prisons, according to a report from the Council of State Governments. Or it could spend $189 million over the next five years to improve treatment options for people with behavior health problems, the report found.
Local officials see the need as well. Cole County Sheriff John Wheeler said that the county had 113 mental commitments in 2015. That has jumped to over 300 this year, he said. The jail has just one behavioral health cell. Adding more wouldn’t be simple or inexpensive.
For now, Wheeler is taking a smaller step to combat the problem: The sheriff is implementing a program for deputies to carry Narcan in their vehicles. The nasal spray counteracts the effects of an opioid overdose.
Unfortunately, despite all the talk of the dangers and solutions to opioid abuse, Narcan is very much needed, even in our fair city.
Wheeler acknowledged that implementing the program comes at a cost. He’ll have to take deputies off the road to train them, then paying temporary overtime for their replacements.
We support Wheeler’s decision to have deputies carry Narcan, and we encourage our leaders at all levels to continue not just bring behavioral/substance abuse offenders to justice, but to treat them.
News Tribune