Center for addiction, mental illness progresses

With funding for a day treatment center for residents with mental health and substance abuse issues, Ozaukee County officials are moving forward by hiring the center’s director and working toward securing state certification.

To lead the center, the county has hired Michael T. Churchwell, a psychiatrist, who will begin work on July 1, said Kimberly Falkner, director of the county Human Services Department.

Churchwell “brings extensive experience in adult programmatic care and partial hospitalization programs. With this key role in place, we are now able to move forward with our application for “state certification,” she said.

“We anticipate being fully operational by the end of 2026.”

Officials estimate a county-run day treatment program could help up to 300 people annually who suffer from mental health or addiction issues.

The program would be the first of its kind in the county and the only one regionally outside of Milwaukee with no such facility in Washington, Sheboygan or Manitowoc counties, Falkner said.

The intermediate care center would be located in the county Administration Center in downtown Port Washington utilizing existing space.

Falkner said minimal remodeling would be necessary.

Intermediate care provides short-term, supportive services for people needing more help than they can get at home but not full hospital care.

The program would be a major step forward in the continuing battle against substance use and mental health issues afflicting law enforcement, the courts, health services and residents, officials say.

The program would operate five days per week, serving up to 16 clients per day,  provide integrated treatment for serious mental illness and substance use and provide a ready treatment solution for individuals in crisis, reducing the need for voluntary and involuntary commitments, Falkner said.

The center would have a staff of seven, including Churchwell, a case manager, a behavioral health manager and an occupational therapist.

Other than Churchwell, no other staff has been hired, Falkner said.

The county’s share of the staff salaries would total $661,168 per year, not counting equipment, furniture and supplies, officials say.

Clients would pay for services through Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance.

In March, the County Board approved committing $600,000 to be used to cover start-up costs.

Those funds were secured by the county from a legal settlement with drug companies and retailers who, according to court documents, “flooded the market with highly addictive drugs claiming they were safe and efficacious for long-term use.”

The county currently has $1.7 million in opioid settlement funds available, with a total allocation of $3.7 million expected through 2038.

Those funds must be used for opioid harm reduction and treatment expansion.

About $225,000 of those funds are being used this year to fund two “co-responder” teams in which specially trained sheriff’s deputies and county social workers respond to crisis events in which substance use or mental illness are factors.

The teams also operate proactively before crisis events occur.

Falkner said the center would complement the responder teams by providing an alternative to emergency detention reducing jail admissions related to behavioral health crisis, reducing the number of individuals waiting in jail for treatment, reducing hospital emergency room visits.

The center would offer “a more humane and clinically appropriate stabilization pathway,” she said in a memo. “Instead of cycling individuals through hospital and jail systems, the county would have a structured, recovery-focused option,” she said.

Falkner said she expects to work cooperatively with the county jail, the courts and district attorney.

Officials expect the treatment center to help reduce incarcerations, emergency room visits and crisis events as it becomes better known.

Family therapy also would be available and the treatment center would work with nonprofits.

“It will also add in-house psychiatric services, replacing current contracted providers to improve access, continuity, and ensure ethical, high-quality care,” she said.