DELAWARE — The Delaware-Morrow Mental Health & Recovery Services Board (DMMHRSB) voted on June 22 to place a renewal levy with a 0.5-mill increase on the upcoming November general election ballot.
“The levy is the dedicated local funding source for crisis response, mental health, prevention, and addiction recovery services that reach thousands of residents across Delaware and Morrow Counties each year,” a DMMHRSB press release on the levy states.
“If approved by voters, the total levy will be 2.0 mills and cost homeowners approximately $50 per year per $100,000 of appraised property value.”
The levy would not expand services, but rather sustain them amidst growing demand and rising costs. Services that receive funding from the levy include:
- Crisis hotlines, mobile crisis response, and 24/7 emergency stabilization for residents experiencing a mental health or substance use emergency
- Counseling, psychiatric care, and residential treatment
- Addiction recovery services, peer support, and recovery housing
- Prevention programs serving children, families, and schools
- Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for law enforcement, drug court support, and jail diversion initiatives
- Partnerships with hospitals, courts, schools, and social service agencies to coordinate care
The rising costs for care
DMMHRSB Executive Director Deanna Brant told Delaware Source the two primary costs for providing care, which reflect the 0.5-mill levy increase, are personnel and office capacity.
“With the workforce pressures we have in this country, the cost of hiring and retaining qualified personnel — when there’s so much competition in the central Ohio area — has risen,” Brant said.
“The second piece is simply those ending costs of doing business: utilities, office space, those types of costs.”
DMMHRSB’s communications director, Steve Brown, said the costs of wages for board-contracted providers increased by $1,818,804, or 6%, from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025.
Brant also pointed to a natural increase in demand for services as it becomes more socially acceptable to simply ask for help.
“As boards, partners and providers work to destigmatize help-seeking behavior, there’s a natural increase in requests for care,” she said. “Because, as it becomes more acceptable and not seen in a negative way, you’re going to see some natural increase that comes with that.”
Brant and Brown also said that as the area continues to grow population-wise, demand for DMMHRSB’s services increases naturally.
“From fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2025, board-funded services experienced a 32.14% increase in individuals served, Brown said. “At the midpoint of fiscal year 2026, we were projected to have a 4.98% increase over fiscal year 2025.
“For youth-specific services, HelpLine’s School-Based Services — Suicide Screening and Violence Prevention — saw a 68.21% increase in youths served from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2025.”
DMMHRSB chairman Bruce Pijanowski said the board has a record of fiscal discipline and accountability that justifies bringing this increase before voters, including lean administrative costs.
“Every dollar from this levy is restricted by law to mental health and addiction recovery services. The money cannot be diverted,” Pijanowski said in a press release.
“Delaware and Morrow County voters have supported this work before, and we are hopeful they will again, because the alternative is service reductions our community cannot afford.”
What services are at risk?
A press release states that without additional funding, DMMHRSB’s provider network would face reductions in capacity.
“That means waitlists for treatment, service gaps in crisis response, and the real risk of provider agency closures,” the release states.
“Costs that today are absorbed by mental health and addiction treatment would shift to law enforcement, emergency rooms, and the criminal justice system, where care is more expensive and less effective.”
