Lucas County mental health board reaches agreement with Zepf Center for crisis services
Jun. 12—The Mental Health & Recovery Services Board of Lucas County has reached a temporary agreement with the Zepf Center on a crisis-care services plan that will begin July 1, one day after its contract with Rescue Mental Health & Addiction Services is set to expire.
The temporary agreement, which would officially run from June 15 to Sept. 30, is subject to approval by the board's trustees when they meet Tuesday. An initial planning period to gather budgetary needs and other preparations would begin June 15 in order to have services ready to go July 1.
The agreement would allocate $1.175 million to the Zepf Center for crisis-care services. The board would then review whether to enter into a long-term commitment with the Zepf Center.
The announcement comes after a contract dispute still pending in the courts led Rescue, the board's previous vendor, to announce it was closing June 30. Mr. Sylak said after Rescue announced its closing, the board made it clear they would pursue other avenues to have a plan in place before the deadline, as required by Ohio law.
"Internally, we had a schematic in our brain on what needed to occur, but that took on more urgency when Rescue released that they were closing," he said. "We went into urgent action."
John DeBruyne, Rescue's president and chief executive officer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening, but in an interview with The Blade earlier this week, he said the dispute made it impossible to retain staff, and held that he wouldn't engage in a temporary contract extension with inadequate staffing levels that threaten the safety of both his clients and under-staffed employees.
The board announced the agreement at 5 p.m. Friday evening in a prepared statement. According to the statement, the Zepf Center agreement "will ensure 24/7 access remains available for individuals in Lucas County experiencing a psychiatric crisis." The plan involves a 24/7 crisis line and the ability to provide onsite or community-based emergency assessments and facilitating hospital admissions when appropriate."
The dispute between the board and Rescue began in November, when the board sought a new mental-health services vendor in order to implement a new system for emergency psychiatric and stabilization services. After hearing concerns about services from the community, providers, and stakeholders, Mr. Sylak said the board commissioned a report that had been released the previous January.
The Community Psychiatric Emergency Services report compiled by TBD Solutions found Lucas County's current crisis services system to be "subpar" in the areas of care coordination and outcomes-driven care. It rated the county as "acceptable" for its safety net and crisis continuum, and "good" for recovery-oriented care.
The board issued in November a request for proposals to find a new vendor for its crisis services.
Rescue followed by filing a complaint in February in Franklin County court, contending the board's Request for Proposals process was an illegal bidding process and violated good-faith bargaining requirements in accordance with both Ohio law and its existing contract. A judge issued an injunction preventing the board from awarding a new contract based on the RFP until "the parties have attempted to resolve their dispute by good-faith negotiation and collaboration" under the statute.
Mr. Sylak wouldn't comment on what the ongoing litigation could bring, but said the board had an obligation to the community to have a plan in place for when the June 30 contract expired.
"We have stated all along that our commitment was to the community and the individuals who need these services," he said. "We believe that we have selected a partner that can work with not only us, but the community to ensure that crisis services not only will meet the needs of our community, but exceed the expectation of everyone who uses those services."
First Published June 11, 2021, 6:30pm