FENTRESS COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — In rural counties, mental health resources can be hard to find.
In Fentress County, Ridgeview Behavioral Health discovered this lack of resources when they first moved a criminal justice liaison into the jail there.
The liaison is set up as a middle man of sorts, working with people in the community, alongside the criminal justice and behavioral health systems, to meet common goals like making sure mental illness isn't criminalized.
The position helps improve outcomes for people struggling with mental health in a jail environment.
But without resources, Michael Yates, development director of Ridgeview, said achieving this was difficult.
"It didn't take long after our criminal justice liaison was working in the jail for her to bring to our attention, 'I don't really have any resources to connect people as they exit the jail. There's no mental health services. There's a lack of other substance use treatment programming, recovery supports. They have to travel either all the way to Cookeville or to Crossville — some even further," Yates said.
The numbers
In 2023, 18,405 people lived in Fentress County according to census data.
The Tennessee Department of Health data shows 21% of those residents reported frequent mental distress — 5% more than the average in Tennessee.
The organization in Tennessee that gives outpatient mental health services to those without insurance is called the Behavioral Health Safety Net. There were not any BHSN facilities in Fentress County in early 2023, and for 7.2% of the county's population who were uninsured in 2023, only 72 without insurance received support from BHS.
In 2020, over a quarter of Tennessee's rural counties did not have a hospital, and 22 out of the 48 open hospitals in rural areas were at risk of closure.
After four years without a hospital, the University of Tennessee Medical Center came to Jamestown in June of 2023.
It is the only hospital in Fentress County, so even though there are enough primary care doctors for the population (930:1 ratio), there is still limited access to more specific mental health services.
Steps toward help
After learning of the lack of resources in Fentress, Ridgeview began looking to see if there was any federal grants to help rural areas get funding for healthcare and found one: the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program — Behavioral Health Support (RCORP-BHS) grant.
They applied for the grant in spring 2022, and in late 2023, Ridgeview Behavioral Health opened the first mental health clinic in Fentress County, located in Jamestown.
Yates said they went into the grant with a focus on the judicial system, reaching out specifically to the sheriff's office, jail administrator, 8th judicial district judicial office and their respective courts for support.
"They were all very interested, willing, supportive, saw a need to have these kinds of behavioral health supports much more proximate and accessible to not just people in jail, but to the community in general," Yates said.
People inside the jail can now receive mental health addiction assessments as well as therapy, thanks to a mobile telehealth cart. There are also re-entry services for people who are scheduled to be released from jail to help them enter the world again, including elements like job searching, checking on a birth certificate, getting a driver's license and other basic needs.
The re-entry specialist and recovery specialist attend court on Tuesday to be a resource for the judge or the judicial system to use — so that anyone from the probation officer to the District Attorney's office to the judge himself can see them and reach out to them to help get people on a healthier track.
“You have to listen to these locals ... the people that know the county best and know how to navigate their systems the best, those are people you really need to honor the wisdom they have and take it to heart," Yates said.
Ridgeview has services in Anderson, Campbell, Morgan, Roane and Scott County, as well as Fentress and Pickett. You can learn more about them online.
To schedule an appointment or learn more about the services offered at the Jamestown Clinic, you can call 865-481-6170, ext. 1350. Ridgeview also has a Mobile Health Clinic serving Fentress, and the number for help there is 866-599-0466.
I know how difficult it can be to find the resources needed to stay healthy, especially in communities two or three hours away from the nearest healthcare hospital. I want to hear your concerns. If you or anyone you know is struggling with healthcare access, please email me at hannah.urban@newschannel5.com.
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