October 12, 2024
From the Fairfield County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health (ADAMH) Services Board
The Fairfield County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health (ADAMH) Services Board is asking voters to renew a .75 mil existing levy this November. This is not a new tax or increase and will remain at its current cost of $13 per $100,000 property value.
Funds generated through levies supporting Fairfield ADAMH make up about 60% of the Board’s revenue and additional funding comes through federal, state and local grants. ADAMH Boards are statutorily mandated in the State of Ohio and are responsible for planning, funding and monitoring the mental health and substance use services in each county.
The Fairfield County ADAMH Board partners with 15 nonprofit agencies to provide treatment, prevention and recovery support services throughout Fairfield County. Funding from this levy will help continue the services ADAMH provides such as youth prevention and treatment in every school district, employment services for those with mental health challenges, 24/7 mobile crisis intervention team response and support services for the senior population to name some.
The Board also offers several trainings for individuals and businesses such as Mental Health First Aid and supports local law enforcement in their work with people in mental health crisis and more.In addition, the levy will provide the ADAMH Board with funding to expand innovative programming that caters directly to local needs.
Earlier this year, the ADAMH Board held an open house for the Starlight Crisis Center located on Locust Street in Lancaster. This facility addresses the immediate needs of individual in a mental health or substance use crisis. Starlight was built in response to community feedback for more services like this closer to home.
The ADAMH Board is planning two more facilities with construction projected to begin in 2025. One will be housing for homeless people struggling with mental health or substance use problems and the other is a consumer-based facility – peer-to-peer based, to support individuals on their recovery journey.
“The stigma and thinking around behavioral health have evolved, and people are starting to see it is needed now, especially since Covid,” Marcy Fields, Executive Director of the Fairfield County ADAMH Board said. “Since insurance doesn’t cover everything, people want a community with a really good safety net,” she added.
A growing concern is the number of suicide deaths and suicide prevention, and education services will increase with the passage of this levy. The number of overdose deaths in Fairfield County has decreased.
“Our goal is to keep people alive and get them into recovery to live a long, productive and healthy life,” Fields concluded.
For more information about Fairfield County ADAMH, please visit www.fairfieldadamh.org.
To see how this levy and other local issues could affect your property tax, please check out the estimator tool by searching your address on the Fairfield County Auditor’s website.
