The meeting of the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services that had been scheduled for April 15 has been rescheduled for Wednesday, April 22, 2015, at the Board offices in Troy.
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Effective immediately, the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services is online at a new, shorter, easier-to-use domain name: tcbmds.org.
The Board's website address is now www.tcbmds.org and the email addresses will be "@tcbmds.org." The part of the email address before "@" remains the same. For the time being, both the old and new domains are working. However, the old name - mdsadamhs.mh.state.oh.us - will "forward" to the new one. If you click an old bookmark or type in "www.mdsadamhs.mh.state.oh.us" there will be a momentary pause, and your browser will load "www.tcbmds.org." Similarly, when using an older mail list or typing in an email address as "[email protected]" the message will still be delivered, but email coming from the Board will use the "@tcbmds.org" domain name. "Transitioning websites and email from one domain name to another is never easy, and can cause some confusion for users," said Brad Reed, Director of Community Resource Development for the Tri-County Board. "However, our older domain name was very long and parts were often mistyped or missed altogether. Taking the steps to convert to the more commonly used .org greatly simplifies the process of reciting our address on the phone, or in other media." Reed said the old domain name was impractical to use in social media or in campaigns using billboards, radio or anyplace the audience needed to remember the address. "Twitter, for instance, only allows 144 characters, so using 28 just on our web address really was not effective," he said. "All of our media accounts now use the same six letters - tcbmds - which stand for Tri-County Board Miami Darke Shelby. On the web, the address is www.tcbmds.org. Email is @tcbmds.org. We have a Facebook page at /tcbmds, and on Twitter we are @tcbmds. This change will greatly simplify our online outreach." Questions about the new domain name or any of the Tri-County Board's social media accounts may be directed to Brad Reed, Director of Community Resource Development, by email at [email protected]. At its March 19, 2014, meeting, the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services passed a resolution to express "deep concern about the lack of consideration for local" assessment, planning, contracting, funding, monitoring and evaluating of mental health and addiction services in Darke, Miami and Shelby counties.
The resolution is in response to proposed funding shifts by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services prompted by Governor John Kasich's Mid-Biennium Review budget adjustments. OMHAS has indicated it will re-allocate a significant amount of funds planned by local boards for local priorities into projects of statewide scope. Tri-County Board Executive Director Mark McDaniel, in a letter accompanying the resolution sent to legislators representing the three counties, said, "We are alarmed at the efforts underway by OMHAS to redirect resources away from these locally driven initiatives to state priorities." McDaniel pointed to a number of initiatives in late-stage planning or already under way that are at risk of curtailment if the OMHAS funding shifts occur. Local priorities relate to opiate programming such as detox and residential programming, Vivitrol and Narcan projects, and greater access to physicians. According to McDaniel, local boards have learned that the redistribution would be used to purchase electronic health records software for State Hospitals; fund statewide prevention efforts above and beyond statewide efforts funded by casino revenue sharing; and use $30 million to create five regional crisis stabilization units. He said it is not clear how these projects would be funded beyond Fiscal Year 2015. In the letter to legislators, McDaniel identified other local priorities at risk that have reduced the use of State Hospital bed days. "These local programs have reduced civil bed usage of the State Hospital by 860 bed days in FY13 and 733 bed days so far in FY14," McDaniel said. "That's over $1 million less of state hospital bed days used in the past two years by the Tri-County area." McDaniel added: "This is an excellent example of why local behavioral health resources should be increased and supported and not reduced or reprioritized. And by the way, OMHAS gets to enjoy the significant savings as a result of our local work; we receive none of it!" The State of Ohio operates under a two-year, or biennial, budget. Historically, the Mid-Biennium review, or MBR, has been a housekeeping measure to correct errors or make minor adjustments to the two-year budget. However, in recent years the MBR has become a significant budgeting process unto its own. In March, Gov. Kasich introduced House Bill 472, a 1600-page bill that members of the Ohio House are considering splitting into as many as 20 separate bills. |
AuthorBrad Reed is Director of Community Resource Development at the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services. Archives
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