Photo by Deb Gau Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen, and Jory Dove and Sarah Ackerman of Western Mental Health Center, spoke about a proposed partnership for a restorative competency program. The program would provide mental health services to people being held at the Lyon County Jail. Dove said people who have been found not competent to stand trial may have to wait a long time in jail before they can get inpatient mental health care.

MARSHALL — Many incarcerated people in Minnesota are also dealing with mental health struggles, said Western Mental Health Center executive director Sarah Ackerman. It’s an issue that Lyon County and Western Mental Health Center want to work together to address, she said.

This week, Sheriff Eric Wallen and representatives of Western Mental Health Center told Lyon County Commissioners they plan to apply for about $300,000 in state grant funds, to help fund a two-year mental health program geared toward people in the Lyon County Jail.

“It’s an extension of our co-responder program that we have with crisis services,” said Jory Dove, of Western Mental Health Center. The co-responder program partners mental health professionals with local law enforcement, to better respond to people in crisis.

Dove said Western Mental Health and the Sheriff’s Office are now looking at starting a restorative competency program.

“We know that there’s a lot of individuals in the Lyon County area that struggle with mental health issues and are put on commitments,” Dove said. If a person is found not competent for trial for mental health reasons, that person could be held in the jail until an inpatient treatment space is available.

“It could take a long time for them to sit in the jail. It’s not conducive for their mental health,” Dove said.

The restorative competency program “would allow us to provide outpatient services on an individual basis, with somebody who needs that restoration to competency, to get them the mental health help, to help them understand their charges, to be able to stand trial,” Dove said.

Dove said one goal of the program would be to reduce recidivism at the Lyon County Jail. “We’ll be able to follow them, provide them with services. We can implement it with them outside of the jail as well,” he said.

Dove said the program would add another co-responder working with the county. They would also need the involvement of other partners, like attorneys and judges.

Ackerman said the restorative competency program would be modeled after similar successful programs being used in Colorado.

“Our goal is to be able to build, to use this grant as a planning grant to be able to sustain this long-term,” Ackerman said.

If the partnership is awarded grant funding, Lyon County would be the fiscal host for the grant, Wallen said. At Tuesday’s county board meeting, commissioners voted to authorize Wallen to serve as a signer for the grant.