The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services allocated Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) funding to local detention centers for jail-based therapeutic services, peer support services, care coordination, and other related services.  County was previously awarded over $550,000 and was recently awarded an additional $309,379 for July 2024 through June 2025.  Funding from this grant helps pay for behavioral health services within the Missoula County Detention Facility.

Missoula County’s Jail Mental Health Team is currently comprised of one lead mental health therapist, three mental health therapists, one care coordinator, and two interns from the University of Montana School of Social Work.  They work with both adults and juveniles in the Missoula County Detention Facility providing services including:

• Offering individual and group therapy within the jail
• Connecting an individual to follow up mental health care with a service provider upon release
• Stabilizing inmates with a severe disabling mental illness so they can function as part of the general jail population and have an easier transition back to the community upon release
• Completing suicide/violence risk assessments
• Discussing coping skills and assisting with community re-integration
• Conducting initial diagnostic interviews
• Coordinating with detention staff, lawyers, and community providers, as needed, to assist inmates with obtaining services

Any inmate is eligible for assistance from the jail mental health team.

History:

The State of Montana launched the Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) initiative in 2022 to expand behavioral health services available to Montanans and to fill in gaps in the continuum of care. The Initiative was authorized through the HEART fund in HB 701, which utilizes tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana to leverage additional Medicaid funding through a federal match. With the federal match, the Initiative invests up to $25 million a year in programs to provide a full continuum of behavioral health and treatment programs for Montana communities.

Contact grants@missoulacounty.us with any questions about this funding and programs.