From staff reports
KENT Coleman Professional Services has been awarded a $4 million, two-year Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic expansion grant by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The counties where Coleman will be implementing this grant are Jefferson, Allen, Auglaize, Hardin, Portage and Stark.
“We are thrilled to be awarded this important funding,” said Nelson Burns, Coleman president and CEO. “There are only 11 CCBHCs in Ohio. This brings national attention to the work Coleman is doing and will allow us to provide more comprehensive services to the clients we are honored to serve.”
The administration awarded close to $490 million to clinics to increase access to community mental health and substance use disorder treatments. The agency is apart of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. Its mission is to reduce the impact of substance a
BURNS
KENT Nelson Burns, president and CEO at Coleman Professional Services, has announced his retirement, effective this summer. The exact date will be determined once his successor is hired and ready to start.
Burns has served as Coleman’s leader for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Coleman has grown from a local, community mental health center to an organization providing not just psychiatry, counseling and case management services, but employment and housing services, among others. He has always considered himself a “servant leader” and under his leadership, Coleman has grown from serving about 1,000 people in one county to serving more than 30,000 in 22 counties across Ohio, including facilities in Steubenville.
Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene says the Mahoning County jail is the largest mental health facility in the county.
“When we have 500 inmates, we know that one third of those inmates are on some type of psychotropic meds,” he said.
“We started realizing: Where are these people going to go when they get released? Where is their next meal going to come from? Who is going to give them their meds? These are all things that weren’t thought about before.”
Interventions through community partnerships can stop the endless cycle, and find more appropriate places to treat and house them than jail, Greene said.
JACKSON TWP. Investigators continue to trace the path of a Massillon nursing home resident who died after leaving for a dental appointment Friday.
Authorities believe no foul play was involved in the death of Jane L. McClelland, township Police Chief Mark Brink said Monday, adding that they continue to investigate and to await the results of a Stark County Coroner s Office autopsy.
McClelland, 64, who authorities said suffered from Alzheimer s, went missing and was found dead Sunday morning in a snowbank near The Strip shopping center. She was a resident of The Laurels of Massillon.
In a news release from the nursing facility on Monday morning, Hayley Simpson, regional director of operations for the Laurel Health Care Co., wrote that on Friday, McClelland went on a leave of absence to attend a personal appointment. The resident independently scheduled the appointment with their provider, arranged transportation, and was appropriately checked out by staff upon their departu