GRAND Mental Health Staff to Follow Inmates Post-Release for Continuous Care

Grand Mental Health and Rogers County announced they’re going to embed two GRAND Mental Health staff members in the county jail, but GRAND Mental Health says these services will benefit inmates even after they’re released.

“The cool part is the staff that we’re going to embed are going to be working specifically to prepare people for employment post-release,” said Josh Cantwell, the Chief Operating Officer for Grand Mental Health.

Cantwell says on top of preparing inmates for employment, their staff will also follow the individuals as they are released to provide mental health services.

“This continuity of care where the same staff members that will be following and providing that treatment is going to lead to those outcomes,” said Cantwell.

Outcomes such as decreased recidivism, increased engagement in outpatient mental health services, and increased employment.

Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office also says they have a similar program where they partner with Creoks to perform mental health evaluations of the inmates.

“30 to 50% of them probably have some type of mental health issue,” said Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott.

Elliott says that when people with mental illness come into the jail, they want to do everything they can to start treating them, saying they want these inmates to serve their time, get adjudicated, and be able to migrate back into the community and be successful.

He says that many times, these inmates will be able to stay with their counselor even after they leave the jail.

Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado says in 2017, they opened their mental health facility for inmates.

He says they also have a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and a discharge planner on duty to help with inmates who need mental health and substance abuse treatment.

“Now we have a discharge planner who ensures that they are connected with a continued therapy treatment outside of the jail. So that reduces the opportunity for them to fall back into that lifestyle,” said Regalado.

Rogers County’s partnership with GRAND Mental Health is paid for by a grant from the State Health Department.