Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By P.J. GLISSON
Bessemer — Members of the Finance, Budgeting and Auditing Committee of the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners voted last week to accept and file a written proposal to help initiate a new drug treatment and mental health center in the U.P.
Commissioner Joseph Bonovetz said the proposal that Houghton County Administrator Ben Larson submitted to the Upper Peninsula Coalition for Area Progress.
Larson’s proposal says that there is U.P.-wide support to establish a U.P. Drug Treatment and Mental Health Crisis Stabilization Unit Center.
No location for the proposed center was yet mentioned.
According to Bonovetz, who is a member of the UPCAP board, the thought is that such a facility could be established if all 15 U.P. counties provide some of the opioid settlement monies that are being distributed as part of a national settlement with various drug companies.
He said that proponents of the idea believe that such a center could reduce the number of such patients who now are transferred to facilities outside of the U.P.
“These are involuntary transfers, and they go through the courts,” said Bonovetz.
“This facility, if possible, could be made available to Upper Peninsula residents in need, and provide a ‘local’ option to keep our citizens in their own community to receive timely and appropriate care,” said Larson in his proposal.
“It has been proven that keeping citizens in their own communities is always best, and having our citizens in treatment 9 hours away in places such as Kalamazoo, Caro or Dearborn is not ideal,” he said. “Many of the patients in treatment come from families that are not wealthy and this limits them from seeing their loved one in treatment with the distance, time and travel costs that are prohibitive for many downstate facilities.”
In addition, wrote Larson, “As every county can attest, the current system of transporting the patients is very costly for us all. We are wearing out our police cars and transport vehicles, paying for increasing overtime hours for our Sheriff Department employees, and the trend is sadly showing that this dilemma is growing and not shrinking at the current time.”
Larson said, as a result of ongoing opioid funds, the U.P. will receive around $13 million directly paid to county governments, with additional funds possibly also sent to cities, townships and Native American tribes.
“Each county would agree to contribute 50% of their opioid settlement funds,” said Larson. “Some will have more to give, and some would have less to contribute.”
Bonovetz said he is not certain if restrictions on opioid funds would allow for them to be spent in the way Larson proposed.
Larson’s proposal reported opioid funds usage as follows: “85% of funds must be used for opioid remediation, with 70% being used for future opioid remediation. The final 15% of funds is unrestricted.”
Larson added that Michigan legislators also believe grant funding may be available for the proposed facility, and he plans to call a meeting soon with U.P. counties, tribal representatives, mental health officials, state and federal legislators, hospital partners and representatives of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
In other news at the Feb. 28 meeting, committee members also voted to advertise three open seats on the board of directors for the Gogebic County Community Mental Health Authority in Wakefield.
