CASPER, Wyo. — The Natrona Collective Health Trust is providing funding for a new case manager position at Mercer Family Resource Center to help people leaving treatment and incarceration facilities as they reenter the community.
Mercer has hired Kristy Oster to fill the position, the Natrona Collective Health Trust said in a press release Wednesday. Oster has experience as a probation and parole agent, field services reentry coordinator and district manager with the Wyoming Department of Corrections.
“The Natrona County Collective Health Trust has provided all of Natrona County a resource that will assist clients in challenging situations who will be released into our community from treatment or incarceration,” Oster said in the release. ”The creation of shared case planning and clients working collaboratively with local resources will reduce redundant work and financial stress on our local organizations and clients.
“The position allows for reentry work with an additional focus on bringing new opportunities to Natrona County through collaboration to ensure the needs of our community are being addressed. I look forward to working within Mercer Family Resource Center to create a healthier community.”
The decision to create the new position was made by the Natrona County Sequential Intercept Model Team, the Natrona Collective Health Trust said. The team is also working to develop a new “Coordinated Crisis Response Team” to help first responders provide “appropriate services to individuals suffering a mental health or substance abuse crisis.”
The Natrona County Sequential Intercept Model Team includes behavioral health providers, law enforcement, social services professionals and people from the nonprofit sector, and works to “identify and eliminate mental and behavioral health service gaps in the community,” the release added. The team is led by Ray Pacheco, senior program director with the Natrona Collective Health Trust.
“It’s been a great honor to work with the SIM team to help create systemic change in our community,” Pacheco said in the release. “With the creation of the case manager position, there is a real chance for creating effective resources for individuals coming out of treatment, incarceration, or a crisis situation. While there is much work needed in behavioral health, the SIM team has made a great leap forward with this case manager approach.”
The team first met in December 2021 as a project led by the Banner Health Wyoming Medical Center with funding from the Natrona Collective Health Trust, formerly the Wyoming Medical Center Foundation.
