In January, Washoe County created the role of Behavioral Health Administrator.
The position was created to oversee and improve the system for mental health and substance abuse issues in our community.
They have found their choice for the job with Julia Ratti.
Ratti sat on the Sparks City Council, was a member of the State Senate, and worked in the Health Department.
So, she's hoping to take those skills and experiences and apply them to dealing with mental health gaps.
"I think what I've had the opportunity to do is see systems and policy," Ratti said. "In most, when we're talking about complex societal challenges, complex issues we're facing as a community. One organization, one program, one initiative, is never going to meet that need, it's all about improving the entire system."
In her role as the County's Behavioral Health Administrator, she's hoping to tackle those barriers.
"Mental health really touches my heart," Ratti said. "I just have enough in my own family, in people that I know and some of the systems and programs that I've worked in to see where we see a pretty significant growth in people who are experiencing challenges."
Ratti has four main components her and the county are working on.
The first is getting a better crisis response system.
"Instead of rolling law enforcement or police or ambulance we roll behavioral crisis response teams that are comprised of behavioral health professionals and a peer," she said. "Somebody who has lived through that experience and has gone through that work."
The next is having people with mental health and substance abuse issues not enter the justice system, but rather pointing them towards resources.
"So really working with the courts, law enforcement, with the jail, with alternative sentencing, with all of these different components of the justice system and then connecting that to the behavioral health care system so that way we have better outcomes," Ratti said.
The third is putting more focus on children and their families.
"When a child is in crisis generally their family is in crisis as well and so how do we get more support more wrap around, more connection to services for that family and that first two months where they're in crisis, but also on an ongoing basis if it continues to be an issue," she said.
The last is reopening the West Hills facility.
"West Hills is a super exciting opportunity we know there are a lack of services for children who are having an acute need specifically so we'll be doing some of that there," Ratti said.
Ratti says they're talking about having a crisis respite center in there, an alternative to hospitalization for people in crisis.
They're hoping for it to be a teaching opportunity by getting UNR students in there, to start building up the workforce for dealing with behavioral health.
They're hoping to get the facility open by June 2026.
While those four things will be a lot to tackle, she stresses that it's a team effort approach to make sure progress is made.
"There's no intention that me as one human being is going to be able to tackle that right? So, my job is really to pull together all the partners and collaborators, and there's already a lot of work underway."
