SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) -The Springfield-Greene County Health Department is asking Springfield City Council for up to $500,000 in opioid settlement money to identify gaps in the mental health and substance use service system and find ways to better connect people with available resources.
The money would come from opioid settlement funds the City of Springfield already has. The Health Department wants to hire a third-party consultant to map out the services available across the county and identify where the gaps in care are.
Health department describes system gaps
Jordan Coiner, administrator of chronic disease and prevention at the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, said the county has resources but lacks clarity on how they connect.
“And I’ve heard that since I started here at the health department about 12 years ago, is that Greene County is resource rich, but can sometimes tend to be systems poor, meaning that it’s hard to know how those referrals and things across agencies are happening and then really where those gaps occur,” Coiner said…