Cortland County Mental Health Department stays resilient amid restructuring

(Photo Source: Unsplash).

The Cortland County Mental Health Department is keeping an eye on the future of their staff as concerns surrounding substance use and youth mental health issues continue to increase.

At Tuesday’s Health and Human Services Committee Meeting, Sharon MacDougall — the county mental health department’s director of community services — presented legislators with a current picture of the department’s staffing situation. 

“Our department has unbelievable responsibilities,” MacDougall said. She noted there are five key management and leadership roles at the department. “This is a lot for only 37 employees to do every year and be responsible for.”

The five areas found in the department deal with family support services, operations and accounts, clinical treatment services, youth systems of care, and the local governmental unit. Family support services and youth systems of care focus on youth and family needs while also making sure the department follows privacy rules, MacDougall said. 

“The family support services area is growing because of the needs of our youth,” she added. “We are trying everything we can to make it revenue generating.”

MacDougall added the operations and account area of the department is a very small team that manages $2.5 million in revenue across the entire department.

MacDougall said the department desperately needs help with billing.

“We need to add billing staff to make sure we stay fiscally sustainable,” she said. “We are restructuring this department in order to make sure we pull in that revenue successfully.”

The clinical services area is the largest one at the department, MacDougall said.

“It offers the most direct services and is where most of our staff currently work,” she said. “They help more than 1,000 clients every year. This is where demand and workforce stress are the highest.”

Those staff members take care of approximately 1,600 service sessions every month, MacDougall said. The department provided services under three different areas of care, including mental health, substance use disorder, and aiding with developmental disabilities.

MacDougall said the leadership team is purposefully lean. 

“We keep our leadership incredibly lean so we can invest everything we can into our client surveying staff members,” she said. “We want to invest every amount of funding we can into those.”

“(Our staff) also support at least 15 task forces across the county, including the Systems of Care program, as well as the Suicide Prevention Coalition,” MacDougall added.

MacDougall noted the department has undergone restructuring for certain positions and will continue to see restructuring this year.

“One of the reasons for our restructuring is certainly the pandemic and workforce issues, especially the mental health and substance use needs of our community,” she said. “We have to change to address those.”

The department has lost some employees to neighboring municipalities and the private sector due to a lack of competitive salaries.

“We have lost two staff (members) and we have two retirements coming up,” MacDougall said. “Because of those two vacancies and high demand, our employees are working more than 100 cases each.”

Legislator Kelly Preston (LD-10) praised MacDougall’s work in managing positions and leadership.. 

“Good job looking out for succession planning,” Preston said. “It is my mantra that succession planning wins for all of us.”

At the end of MacDougall’s presentation, legislator Sandra Price (D-LD-14) announced the county will host a special legislative session to inform the public on “what is happening with drugs in Cortland County.”

Price said the meeting is planned for April 21 at 6 p.m.