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Wasco County has been contributing staff time to Mid-Columbia Center for Living (MCCFL) to help the behavioral health agency weather a “perfect storm” of challenges brought about by significant changes in staffing and funding and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in May the board agreed to formalize the county’s ongoing support over the next six months.
“We can’t allow that organization to fail in this community,” noted Tyler Stone, Wasco County administrative officer. “We have been very successful, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” he added.
The board agreed to ongoing support that will include mentoring MCCFL’s new human resources officer and providing financial services, information systems support, and administrative services support.
Commissioner Steve Kramer noted mental health is a county responsibility. “This has to be done,” he said, and proposed support would give the agency more time to hire an executive and deputy director, as well as fill more of the 20 plus positions with the agency that are currently open.
Commissioner Scott Hege, who serves on both boards, refrained from making a decision but provided background on the situation. He noted that mental health services, like public health services, rely on a variety of state and federal funding sources to operate, and those sources change over time. “It’s very political. Programs are built and then sentiment changes and the funds go away,” he said. During the 12 years he has been on the MCCFL board, there have been constant ups and downs in funding.
The current situation, he added, was “a perfect storm of challenges” that included loss of the executive director, unionization of the employees, and COVID-19 response. “COVID hit MCCFL hard as most of their services are delivered in-person,” Hege said. In addition, the agency struggled with their coordinated care organization (CCO) and the fee for service model that came with it. “MCCFL was not well set up to provide documentation using the medical codes,” he explained, prior funding having been based on population, not service fees.
Currently, MCCFL continues to struggle with staffing shortages, as does the county and many businesses, Hege added.
Commissioner Kathy Schwartz noted that “MCCFL is our safety net” for a portion of the population most in need. She suggested, however, that the staff be monitored closely for staff burnout among those being stretched thin.
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