A Helena group has been named the recipient of almost $208,000 in grant money from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services to support community-based crisis response for people suffering from severe disabling mental illness.

The Rocky Mountain Development Council submitted a plan to the state's Addictive and Mental Disorders Division earlier this year for a cut of $875,000 earmarked by the 2005 Legislature for that purpose.

"This gives us a good, running start at putting in place the services identified in our proposal," Gene Leuwer, RMDC's executive director, said Friday.

The RMDC proposal was one of six funded by the state in this year's distribution of awards. Others included the Eastern Montana Community Health Center, Golden Triangle Community Mental Health Center, South Central Community Mental Health Center, Western Montana Community Health Center (Butte), and Western Montana Community Mental Health Center (Hamilton).

Originally, RMDC -- working in cooperation with a Helena group that has been discussing the area's mental health crisis for the past couple of years -- asked for $300,500 to fund a three-pronged approach to the problem in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Jefferson counties.

The proposal requested $150,000 for training and operating costs for a 24-hour crisis response team comprised of mental health professional health officials to assist law enforcement in coping with calls relating to mentally ill adults in crisis.

Also, RMDC asked DPHHS for $40,000 to help Helena's Golden Triangle Community Mental Health Center with start-up costs for a crisis stabilization center in a renovated house at 836 N. Jackson. That center is currently in operation.

Finally, the proposal requested $110,000 to help pay for a project coordinator to head up an effort to establish a centralized triage location where people in crisis can be evaluated, and provided longer-term assistance in a secure environment if necessary.

Leuwer said AMDD agreed to fund the crisis response team at $115,300 -- about $35,000 short of the full amount necessary to fully fund the team for a nine-month period.

He said that presents the stakeholders in the community with a collective challenge that they will need to address in coming months.

"If we start a service in October of 2006, how do we continue that service beginning in July of 2007?" Leuwer said. "From my perspective, this provides a good opportunity, a carrot, good incentive, to work this out."

He said he's fairly confident those efforts will be a success given the willingness by members of the community to talk about the issue, and work toward a solution.

For example, as part of a letter included in the information provided to the state with RMDC's request for funding, members of the Lewis and Clark County Commission voiced their intent to pursue interlocal agreements to assist with the effort, and maybe even approach the community about passing a county levy.

According to Leuwer, $20,000 of the grant award went to Golden Triangle to assist with its start-up costs for the crisis stabilization center, and about $12,000 went to assist RMDC with its costs associated with administering the grant.

The remaining amount -- about $60,000 -- is dedicated to funding a full-time project coordinator to oversee the development of the community's mental health crisis service system, he said.

While Leuwer says RMDC was hoping for full funding for the plan, he is pleased with what the community did walk away with, and understands the rationale behind the department's decision.

He said he believes that, in order to truly address the plight of Montana communities in coping with mentally ill men and women, the state will have to adopt a system based on different economics.

So, in that respect, Leuwer recognizes how the department might view funding Lewis and Clark County's dreams of ultimately establishing a triage center/secure in-patient facility as "putting the cart before the horse."

The mental health services crisis in the Helena area came to a head in 2002 when St. Peter's Hospital closed its mental health division after losing two of the three psychiatrists who manned the short-term, acute-care facility. On average, the unit provided assistance to about 400 patients a year.

Currently, mentally ill adults in crisis wind up in the hospital emergency room, or if they don't have a medical problem, they may go to in-patient care in other Montana cities, or the state mental hospital in Warm Springs.

The situation has strained the resources of area service providers ranging from health care professionals, to law enforcement officers.

In most cases, officials say, men and women in mental health crisis need a safe place to stay for a week to 10 days while they get back on their necessary medications, and stabilize.