MHRS asks town/county for $625k to keep sliding-fee care and crisis line

Mental Health & Recovery Services of Jackson Hole (MHRS) is asking Teton County and the Town of Jackson for $625,000 total in FY27 Health & Human Services funding, according to the county staff packet: $short title. The biggest piece is $540,000 labeled “Behavioral Health Support” ($400,000 county + $140,000 town) to keep a sliding-fee option for residents and workers who need treatment but don’t qualify under the state’s tighter eligibility rules.

On top of that, MHRS requests $50,000 for crisis services ($25,000 county + $25,000 town) to support its 24/7 walk-in-and-hotline response (which the application says is provided at no charge). Smaller requests include $20,000 for violence/abuse/neglect services (domestic-violence assessments and treatment, often court-ordered), $10,000 from the town for education/training (suicide prevention and Mental Health First Aid-type trainings that can include employers), and $5,000 from the county for employment support (peer and employment specialist help).

For employers, the practical takeaway is that this is a bid to keep the “last resort” behavioral-health infrastructure from thinning out when insurance or state coverage doesn’t pencil—especially for the workforce that keeps businesses open. MHRS reports FY25 performance like same-day/next-day access (average wait time listed as 1 day), 820 crisis contacts with 8,760 hours of crisis coverage, and 2,500 individuals served across programs; those numbers are the kind of capacity that determines whether a staff member gets timely help or disappears mid-season.