A Piatt County mental health professional is hoping to educate the public by peeling back some of the layers that go into the funding of agencies like his.

Tony Kirkman is the Executive Director of the Piatt County Mental Health Center and explains reimbursement rates for agencies like his, particularly from the state level, are incredibly low for how much goes into maintaining his agency. He's hoping unrolling the layers associated with the costs will help folks realize the problems with current funding models.

The lack of funding coming into the Piatt County Mental Health Center and others like them keeps them from providing their staff with a competitive wage. He says that makes it challenging to keep their employees.

Kirkman calls the system completely upside down. He believes there needs to be a more intense focus on community mental health centers because those individuals are on the front lines in each community up and down the state.

Kirkman says an encouraging development on the front of funding has been the State of Illinois beginning to release the tax dollars from the sales of legalized marijuana, something he's been personally frustrated by since that legalized at the start of 2020. Additionally, lobbyists are working to increase the percentage of funds released to agencies like the Piatt County Mental Health Center.