To the editor:

Citizens of Darke, Miami, and Shelby Counties are being asked to renew the Tri-County Mental Health and Recovery Levy. The levy — approved by voters since 1973 — is one of Ohio’s longest-standing mental health levies.

It is a renewal, NOT an additional tax. The five-year, 0.6 mill property tax, with reductions and rollbacks, amounts to just $14.31 per year for a home valued at $100,000 — less than 5 cents per day per household.

Yet that tiny amount provides critically needed local funds that ensure the availability of mental health and recovery services to all residents of Miami, Darke and Shelby Counties — regardless of ability to pay — through a network of provider of agencies. Services include: counseling, 24-hour crisis services, access to hospitals and detox beds, medication-assisted treatment, supportive housing, criminal justice programs, suicide prevention, peer support, education and advocacy, prevention and wellness, community coalitions, and more.

The Tri-County Board continually works to close gaps in the “continuum of care.” Our communities are currently being challenged by heroin and other opiates. The Tri-County Board is an active partner with treatment providers, law enforcement, the courts, schools, city and county officials, and others to meet the problem head-on with prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery programs. We can’t say for sure what challenges may lay ahead in the future, but the funds provided by the Tri-County Mental Health and Recovery levy enable us to be ready.

For more information or with questions, readers may refer to the website YESforMentalHealth.com.

Please join your neighbors in continuing to support this important local issue. Please vote YES for the Mental Health and Recovery renewal levy Nov. 8, or when you vote early or absentee. The need in our communities has never been more urgent.

Thank you,

Mark McDaniel

Executive Director

Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services

Troy