Mental Health Issues in Milam County
Talk to 10 County Judges in Texas and almost every one of them will list mental health issues as one of their top five issues, if not their top issue. For years Texas county governments have worked with state and federal authorities and have gotten nowhere. As a matter of fact, most reliable sources on the subject have, for many years, ranked Texas behind every state and even behind Puerto Rico – that makes us 51st in the nation.
Weekly in my office, I have a family or multiple families come in to discuss mental health worries or issues, and while we take each of them seriously, many times there is little we can do from the County Judge’s office without a violation of the law of a threat to harm an individual, be it the person with mental health or someone around them. In many ways, state law can be very clear on this subject, and then with almost equal presence, state law can also be as indistinct. When it comes to our state and federal governments, mental health is a problem as insidious as it is neglected.
So, last week, not wishing to wait any longer for help from our state or federal governments where help seemingly will never come, I met with our senior jail staff and our County Attorney’s office, and we decided to make our own path and create a game plan to help us here in Milam County. Now, be assured we are not going to reinvent the wheel on this one, but with Jail Administrator Byron Shelton’s vast experience on this issue, and the experience of some of our County Attorney’s staff who have worked in other counties has given us great insight into the methods we will employ to hopefully help us solve this problem.
The plan is to incorporate several other organizations that have successful tack records in working on and successfully managing mental health issues in other counties. Many counties simply wait on the local mental health authority to work on this issue and unfortunately, they are most normally underfunded and overstretched to the breaking point and are painfully unable to meet the needs of a county. This is not to attack our own MHMR Department, but to explain the seriousness of the issue and the lack of concern shown by our state and federal agencies that administrate these MHMR departments in counties throughout the state and nation.
As a result, we will pursue new outlets to aid Milam County as we move forward. Currently, approximately 25% of our current jail population is housed for issues that directly or indirectly relate to mental health issues. The organizations can also help those in the community with the sort of interventions that can be arranged with these providers. We are still in the early phase of this process, but our ultimate goal, and one we are dedicated to is to help better manage the mental health issues here in Milam County without waiting on help from the state or federal government that will never come.
We do all of this not only to make the situation in the Milam County Jail better, but to eventually help those who are in need of this vital and life-changing help throughout Milam County.
