T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Stan Galownia, Belmont County Jail administrator, said inmates with mental health issues will continue to receive treatment with the renewal OF a program to provide counseling services.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Inmates of the Belmont County Jail will continue to receive mental health and substance abuse services that may eventually also be available to the public.

Last August, the Belmont County Board of Commissioners first entered into a contract with the Mental Health Recovery Board to provide those services. Last week, the commissioners renewed that agreement, with the Mental Health Board to provide the county up to $45,000 worth of services, such as screening new inmates and identify those needing alternative services.

“The results have been positive. We’re still receiving the same clientele that have the needs of mental health services in addition to the reasons that they may be brought to our facility for legal matters, but with that said, I think a lot of them are brought here out of frustration with other providers unavailable in the area, so in short they end up here,” Jail Administrator Stan Galownia said. “We recognized we could be doing more here. … We were just unequipped and unable to provide for them from a mental health standpoint, other than the crisis services that we’ve always had with local providers.

“At the early part of the year, we were given a clinical care coordinator,” he said. “The mental health and recovery board is financing that full-time employee. … She’s here … on a full-time schedule and even available after-hours for certain crisis issues and/or follow-throughs with things that aren’t crisis-related.”

Galownia said he hoped for an additional coordinator to meet the jail’s needs. They are also meeting with a neuro-behavioral doctor to possibly provide services.

“We’re also moving forward in that direction, that maybe in the next few months by the end of the year, hopefully we have that now available to not just the Belmont County Jail, but to the … Belmont County community,” he said.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, overcrowding had been a frequent problem at the 144-bed jail. The service does not directly alleviate this.

“Even if they have the mental health needs, even if our facility can’t provide, I don’t have the authority and neither does the sheriff just to move them out to another facility,” Galownia said, adding the counselors can provide assistance and treatment to inmates who are awaiting bed space at a secured facility.

Galownia added that there has been recidivism since the counselor began at the start of the year.

“It’s only been a few months, so to see that turnover, I think it might be a bit premature,” he said. “I think that’s what you’re going to see: the recidivism will decrease. I can see it already internally what has decreased while they’re here. While somebody was waiting weeks and months maybe to get a bed for treatment, we are now able to treat here more appropriately than we have ever had before.

“If we do get neurobehavioral on board, where they can prescribe certain psychotropic medications, that might also assist our medical and our mental health services, to give somebody a level of treatment that we won’t need to actually go outside into a hospital setting,” he said.

“If they must stay here because of the legal reasons that have them here, I want to have the adequate staffing here that can give them at least the minimum care that they need while they’re here waiting for a bed, or we can treat them internally.”

Galownia added there have been improvements in several inmates.

He said inmates’ mental health issues are usually exacerbated by drug use and cases where the inmates neglect their treatments.

“The drugs don’t help, and they compound their problems when they otherwise don’t follow through with their treatment plan after they get out of the facilities, whether it’s the jail or a hospital,” he said. “The prescribers then have no way to keep them tracked or to continue to provide the medications they’re supposed to be taking. The vicious circle that starts for these individuals is they start to self-medicate by using street drugs.”

He added the release coordinator can also keep in contact with inmates after release to keep them on track.

“I think it’s working as good if not better than we could have expected,” he said.

In the future, Galownia would like to see a community outreach center to provide assistance to people unable to function in the community due to their issues.

“Before they end up getting put into a facility such as a jail,” he said. “They shouldn’t have to be arrested before they start getting certain types of help, but that being said, they’re being arrested for reasons that might be very legitimate and needing to be off the streets.”

He believes incarceration could be avoided if they had a place to go and seek treatment.

“That’s somebody’s son or daughter, and that’s a human being that otherwise may or may not have been in jail in the first place, but they need help,” he said. “A jail isn’t a type of place that traditionally someone can receive adequate services for those crisis situations.”

He thanked all involved in the program.

“We do have a pretty extensive collaboration of professionals and organizations that have come together to make this start to come to fruition, and we’re only moving forward.”