(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to rescind a 28E agreement for sharing mental health advocate services with the Sioux Rivers Mental Health Region effective this coming July 1st. Kim Wermersen represents the supervisors on the Sioux Rivers Mental Health Region Board. He says it’s a result in changes from the state that will realign the counties, with Dickinson county transitioning into a district with 14 counties in it…
“Due to this action Dickinson county will no longer have a 28E agreement with Sioux Rivers for advocate services come July 1. The new code says that beginning July 1 every county is mandated to appoint a judicial mental health advocate to be a liaison for mental health patients who have been court ordered and act as their support person. So by us rescinding this agreement effective July 1, we then are able to look for and appoint our own advocate. We can choose to go with the same one we had or we could look at different directions for that as well. It’s really a housekeeping item because come June 30th the region will not be recognized any more, it’s a district.”
The Sioux River Region’s board has already taken similar action to rescind the agreement.
