Brief History of the development of Five County Mental Health Authority

Vance County Mental Health Center, as it was known back in its early days, is one of the oldest mental health programs in North Carolina.  The first services were affected in October of 1964.  A mental health clinic had existed in Henderson in the mid-1950’s, but closed.  It was part-time and was staffed by consultants from John Umstead Hospital.  Very little information is available about the earlier clinic, but the local physicians of the time tell us that patients were reluctant to accept the need for psychiatric help.  In the fall of 1964, Vance, Warren, Granville, Person and Caswell counties were studied in an effort to determine the most potentially useful location for a satellite clinic and possibly for a mental health center in the distant future.  The staff at John Umstead Hospital in Butner were responsible for conducting the survey.  All of the counties mentioned evidenced the need for service, and various key people expressed the opinion that such services would be utilized.  Henderson was selected because of its central location.  Dr. William Taylor, then a third year resident at Duke University Medical Center, and Miss Jo Stallings, social worker at Umstead Hospital, held clinic one day a week.  Selected volunteer ladies worked as receptionists and assisted in scheduling appointments.  Thus the clinic began with no local financial appropriation, but with the help of Maria Parham Hospital’s professional staff and management.  Services were mainly outpatient treatment to patients referred from the community, as well as patients discharged from John Umstead Hospital.

This clinic operated on this limited basis for approximately fifteen months with John Umstead Hospital providing the consultants.  In 1966, the County Commissioners appropriated money to pay consultants and to hire the clinic’s first full-time secretary.  Soon after this, the Department of Community Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, under the direction of Dr. William Hollister, selected Vance and Franklin Counties as locations for a five-year rural mental health study.  During the course of this study, Warren and Granville counties appropriated money so that services of the Vance County Program could be expanded to included residents of those counties.

Also, in 1971, the Scott Parker County Home for Vance County was closed.  The Peace family, owners of the building, granted permission for the mental health clinic and mental retardation day care center to occupy the building rent-free.

The year 1971 was a significant one in the development of mental health services in Vance and surrounding counties.  The North Carolina Legislature approved a statute providing for the establishment of local area mental health programs.  The Department of Mental Health designated Vance, Warren, Granville, and Franklin Counties as the counties to be served by the for this vicinity.  Each of the Boards of Commissioners in these four counties appointed a representative to serve on the first Area Mental Health Board.  In turn, these four county commissioner representatives also appointed other local citizens from each county to form a 15-member Area Mental Health Board.  Vance County charter members on this board were T.W. Ellis, Jr., J.L. Roberson, Linwood T. Peoples and Joseph A. Boyd, M.D.  Thus Vance County became a part of the Area Mental Health Program of Vance, Warren, Granville and Franklin Counties when it was organized on November 17, 1971.  The first area board chairman was T.W. Ellis, Jr., and the first Area Director was William Taylor, M.D.

In 1974, using state and county funds, a new Vance County Clinic and Area Administrative Office Building were constructed on a site provided by Maria Parham Hospital.  Following the resignation of Dr. William Taylor in June of 1974, the Area Board appointed Carroll L. Gray, M.D., Area Director who served in this capacity until May of 1979.  J. Thomas McBride was appointed Area Director in July of the same year.

Through program development and the need for increased services, the eventually branched out into five locations.  These are the Vance Clinic on Charles Rollins Road in Henderson, the Granville Clinic on Orange Street in Oxford, the Franklin Clinic on Industrial Drive in Louisburg, the Warren Clinic on Ridgeway Street in Warrenton, and the Administrative Building on Garnett Street in Henderson.

In 2001 through legislation on the State level, a new law was passed that affected the entire system of public services for people experiencing a mental health, developmental disability and/or substance abuse (MH, DD, SA) issue.  The Division of MH/DD/SA Services then wrote a plan to carry out the new legislation.  The state plan is called the “Blueprint for Change”.  This plan outlines building a new system to control, manage, deliver, and pay for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services for people who need them the most.  The Blueprint calls for some area programs to merge in order to make them more cost effective.  It also spells out who will be eligible for state-funded services and mandates that management of the public system and direct service provision will need to be separated.  The Blueprint also calls for direct input from consumers of the MH, DD, SA services that are provided.

Because of the need to separate the management function from the service provision function, the FCMHA is now the manager of the public MH/DD/SA system for a five county area, and services are provided through a Provider Network.

On July 1, 2005 the VGFW Area Authority and RiverStone Counseling and Personal Development (Halifax County Mental Health) merged to form Five County. The new organization maintains a clinical office in all five counties and performs the functions associated with the management of the MH/DD/SA system of care for adults and children.

Through the many years of development and change that this agency has seen, it has always provided and continues to provide for excellent services to those in our area that are experiencing a mental illness, developmental disability or an addictive disorder.