History and Goals of the Mental Health Board of Trustees

In response to the need for additional funds to support comprehensive mental health services, the citizens of Clay, Platte and Ray counties in 1980 passed a levy of ten cents per hundred dollars on the assessed value of real estate.

The effort was followed nationwide changes that focused on mental health care at the community level. Nationally, large mental health hospitals and other facilities were closed, and local efforts were needed to provide services for members of the community with a mental illness, their families and caregivers.

In 1981, all three Northland counties each agreed to establish the Clay, Platte, Ray Mental Health Board of Trustees. The Board is composed of volunteer representatives from each of the three counties appointed by their respective county commissions. The responsibilities of the Board as stated in the bylaws are to:

• Purchase services from existing community mental health centers, mental health clinics or other public facilities or not-for-profit corporations based in Platte, Clay and Ray counties.

• Administer and disperse community mental health funds for the provision of any comprehensive mental health service.

• Contract with existing public facilities or not-for-profit corporations to provide services for residents of the three-county area.

• Submit information as required on the disbursement of monies from the community mental health fund to the Missouri State Department of Mental Health by such date as the letter specifies, in order to facilitate annual preparation of regional and state mental health plans.

Since its inception in 1981, the Mental Health Board of Trustees has annually disbursed available funds to support behavioral health services and programs in the three-county area.