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Portage Path Behavioral Health to Use Grant Funding to Aid Underserved Communities

photo of a doctor and patient
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Portage Path Behavioral Health is planning on using the federal funding to make a more welcoming space for patients in crisis.

A local nonprofit has been awarded federal grant to help bring behavioral health
services to underserved communities.

Portage Path Behavioral Health will be using $2.3 million in grant funding for communities that don’t always get the help they need.

Director of Development Eddie Dengg says part of this approach is incorporating a new approach called the "living room model."

Dengg on living room model

“We are going to take a space in the ADM Crisis Center, where we operate our emergency services, and we're going to convert it into a living room so it's home...," Dengg said. He continued that the space will feel "safe, comfortable."

Dengg says this will create a place for people to go to if they are having a minor-level crisis to talk to others who have been through the same thing.

Portage Path hopes that this grant funding will go toward services that will help keep people out of jail cells and the emergency room and put them in places where they can get the behavioral health help they need.

Rachel Gross is a senior journalism major in the Kent State School of Media and Journalism and will be graduating Fall 2021. She is the current general manager of the student-run TV station on Kent State’s campus, TV2, and has covered major political events for the station such as the Presidential Debate in Cleveland. With her minor being in political science, she hopes to work in the political news field after graduation.
Mason Lawlor is a senior studying journalism at Kent State University, with a minor in entrepreneurship. He has been a reporter for The Kent Stater for three semesters covering sports and the city of Kent.