Community Mental Healthcare receives CARES Act funding

Community Mental Healthcare Inc. will receive more than $1.5 million through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to assist in the local effort to battle the COVID-19 pandemic in Tuscarawas County.

CMH is planning to use part of the funding to purchase the necessary equipment to develop a state-of-the-art mobile triage tent. This will be utilized to reduce the amount of contact individuals who display symptoms indicative of COVID-19 will have with other individuals while receiving necessary medical care.

“As testing becomes more available and if an immunization is developed, we will be able to use the equipment to implement a drive-through testing and immunization program,” said JJ Boroski, MA, LPCC-S, executive director of CMH.

Boroski envisions the equipment will provide greater accessibility of primary-care services to other areas in Tuscarawas and Carroll counties. He said the infusion of these funds into the local health system will help ensure frontline providers have the supplies and up-to-date equipment needed to provide critical care while minimizing the risk of exposure to COVID-19.

The services provided by CMH have been considered “essential,” and CMH employees have continued to provide services since the beginning of the pandemic.

For over 50 years CMH has provided individual and group counseling, addiction treatment, case management, crisis intervention, primary care, and dental services. Due to COVID-19, all services provided by CMH and the health center are being delivered by telephone or by video. Emergency dental services remain available. Crisis intervention also is available 24/7.

“We have a great team of clinicians who have been on the front lines since the beginning of the pandemic,” Boroski said. “They have been committed to the residents of our communities who are most vulnerable and in need of health care.”

CMH and the health center accept Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance. A sliding-fee scale (self-pay) is available for those who may not be covered otherwise. All ages are welcome.

Community Mental Healthcare is headquartered at 201 Hospital Drive in Dover.

For more information about Community Mental Healthcare, visit www.cmhdover.org or call 330-343-6631.