History


The County of Milwaukee is statutorily obligated to provide mental health and related healthcare services to County residents. Section 51.42(1)(b), Wis. Stats., states:
County liability. The county board of supervisors has the primary responsibility for the well-being, treatment and care of the mentally ill, developmentally disabled, alcoholic and other drug dependent citizens residing within its county and for ensuring that those individuals in need of such emergency services found within its county receive immediate emergency services.

Dating back to the 1880s, Milwaukee County provided care and treatment to persons suffering from chronic mental illnesses (“clients”) in long-term institutional care settings at its Mental Health Complex’s “Rehab Central” facility. These clients experienced multiple psychiatric challenges including persistent emotional and behavioral health disorders, oftentimes complicated by aggression, cognitive delay, and/or medical (i.e. physical health) conditions. Rehab Central was essentially their “home” (one client having been there for as long as 35 years), yet it exhibited a sterile and an institutional environment. As a result, the clients did not have the opportunity to realize their full human potential.
As a result of legal challenges and pressure from advocacy groups, the County began in 2013 to move the clients out of Rehab Central into group homes in nearby communities. This was a three-year process that culminated in the closure of the Rehab Central units in 2016.

In January of 2014, the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division (BHD) issued a solicitation from community providers interested in developing residential and community living skill
opportunities for the clients transitioning from Rehab Central. The impending closure of the long-term care units at Rehab Central presented opportunities for recovery-oriented community providers to develop creative and comprehensive strategies to facilitate the placement and successful re-integration of the clients into more independent and person-centered settings in the community.
In response to the solicitation, Matt Talbot Recovery Services, Inc.) (“Matt Talbot”) submitted a proposal to construct two innovative, state-of-the-art Community-Based Residential Facilities (CBRFs) from the ground-up. The CBRFs would be located in quiet, suburban locations with plenty of acreage to provide for a “least-restrictive” environment. Each CBRF would house no more than eight clients (to prevent congestion), each with his or her private suite; and the staff to client ratio would be almost one-to-one. An occupational therapist would be on staff to engage the clients in creative activities. A Ph.D level clinical psychologist would also be on staff to help engage clients in appropriate therapies.

The Matt Talbot proposal was predicated on the premises that the physical environment itself would have a significant therapeutic benefit; and that a robust individualized treatment plan for each client, with ready access to all necessary community-based services (social, medical, recreational, etc.), would enable the client to achieve the highest possible level of independence. Matt Talbot conceptualized the CBRFs based on state-of-the-art technologies in terms of both programmatic and service best practices; and construction design and methods for the building. The goal was to provide a safe, secure, least-restrictive, serene environment in which clients would live with dignity.

The Matt Talbot proposal was accepted by the County, and this led to the construction, development and opening of Uncas House and Franklin House in 2016.