Orange County NC Website
~ S . boa ~ ~ ©.rU <br />Q <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF OPC <br />AREA PROGRAM <br />WHEREAS, Orange County has been an active and involved participant in implementing required <br />mental health system reform since 2001, working in collaboration with Person County and <br />Chatham County and with Orange Person Chatham Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities <br />and Substance Abuse Authority (OPC Area Program); and <br />WHEREAS, Orange County has participated actively in a Steering Committee for Mental Health <br />System Reform of Orange, Person and Chatham counties to develop and implement the changes <br />required by HB 381 in a manner that Orange County believed best served the needs of its <br />citizens and those of Person and Chatham counties; and <br />WHEREAS, the needs of consumers in Orange, Person and Chatham remain the paramount <br />concern; and <br />WHEREAS, Orange County along with the other 99 counties in North Carolina, labored under the <br />assumption that true collaboration would arise with the State, and organizational sensitivity, <br />administrative flexibility, and fiscal support would be extended by the State given the magnitude <br />of change being wrought throughout the mental health service delivery system; and <br />WHEREAS, the voluminous array of technical memorandums, conflicting communiques, <br />restrictive rulings, executive edicts, and unprecedented cost shifting, required numerous efforts to <br />redirect system reform which has resulted in added expenses; and <br />WHEREAS, the decisions of Orange, Person and Chatham counties to move toward divestiture <br />of services in a slow and systematic fashion in what they believed was in the interest of its <br />consumers and allowed by law has proven to be inconsistent with the funding realities imposed <br />upon OPC Area Program; and <br />WHEREAS, as a result of the monumental changes required over the last five years, among <br />other things, OPC Area Program is facing extraordinary financial difficulties; and <br />WHEREAS, as a result of divestiture, OPC will no longer be a service provider; and <br />WHEREAS, OPC Area Program can neither tax, nor in the absence of service delivery, generate <br />revenue and must rely upon federal, state and local funding to survive; and <br />WHEREAS, OPC Area Program must obtain an infusion of one-time funding from the Division of <br />Mental Health to allow it to complete its orderly divestiture of services and to stabilize and vitalize <br />the provider network it has been required to assemble; and <br />WHEREAS, the preliminary information from the Division of Mental Health indicates that it would <br />expect an infusion of additional funds from Orange, Person and Chatham counties as a <br />prerequisite to its infusion of funds; and <br />WHEREAS, the funds committed to OPC Area Program by each county annually in support of <br />mental health represent 5.3 percent of OPC Area Program's budget; and <br />WHEREAS, Orange, Person, and Chatham counties have already allocated as a one-time, non- <br />recurring special needs allocation substantial additional funds to support required divestiture of <br />service; and <br />WHEREAS, it is two months prior to the end of the fiscal year; and <br />