DeSoto County Supervisors have officially announced that they will switch to a new mental health care provider starting August. This move, as they have explained, is not to belittle Communicare which is currently their provider, but they admitted that they are a little anxious about a local mental health care agency’s ability to handle a staggering caseload.

According to the Board of Supervisors President Bill Russell, their decision to sign an agreement with Region IV Mental Health Services is a step in the right direction.

“We don’t want to disparage Communicare,” Russell said. “Communicare did what they could do. These people (Region IV) are a couple of steps beyond.”

Russell said that Region IV will provide a “revolutionary approach” to mental health care for hundreds of DeSoto Countians at the same cost now provided by Communicare, which is just about $200,000 a year.

As for DeSoto County Administrator Michael Garriga, he said that the decision not to renew Communicare’s contract was not an easy one.

“I think what we’ve discovered is that Region IV provides a very progressive array of services,” Garriga said. “Typically what we have here in DeSoto County is general outpatient therapy. We have gotten so big we have so many specialty needs now.”