In 1973, the only Mental Health Care in Jefferson County was a Saint Louis State Hospital resident who came to the Health Center in Hillsboro on Wednesday afternoons to distribute drugs. Among the many issues not addressed was that of alcohol and other drug abuse. Judge John Anderson; Melvin Williams, Probation Supervisor;  W.H.S. Stu Obrien, Public Defender; Sheriff Buck Burger; G. William Weier, Prosecuting Attorney; and attorney, Brent Williams, incorporated an agency that, they hoped, would address these problems. In February, 1973, they chose Stephen F. Huss, an activist Social Studies Teacher from Hillsboro to join them in the founding of Community Treatment Inc. (COMTREA).

 

For thirteen months, Huss worked without pay to develop the first program, residential treatment for boys ages seventeen to twenty-five. After grants, a state contract with the Division of Alcoholism and local funding had been secured, it opened in June, 1974. It quickly became obvious to the COMTREA leadership Jefferson County had a great many unmet mental health needs. With the Board’s permission and encouragement, Huss began addressing them as needs were identified and funding streams developed. The services developed during the first few years focused mostly on service to those with Substance Use Disorders: individual, group and family counseling, prevention efforts, evaluations for schools and courts, Drunk Driver programs, police training and neighborhood seminars. COMTREA soon became a well-known and admired agency across Missouri and drew positive national attention from ABC World News.

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By 1985 it became apparent addressing mental illness and domestic violence services were critical needs in Jefferson County. The lack of funding to address the concerns also became obvious. The County Government (administrative court at that time) formally recognized COMTREA as its Jefferson County Community Mental Health Center. They believed the agency would be more likely to obtain grants, secure state funding and generate donations than any public entity that they could create. COMTREA became a line item in the County Budget.
The State of Missouri’s Department of Mental Health (DMH) soon recognized COMTREA as its Service Area Authority/Representative for Service Area 22 (Jefferson County). Additional funding and public responsibility accompanied the designation.

In 1986 COMTREA, with the encouragement of the County and the DMH, successfully passed a mil tax for mental health care. The State Statute encouraged counties to make the local mental health center boards like COMTREA serve also as the Community Mental Health Fund Boards. This was encouraged in order to assure a seamless “system of care” between the State DMH and local communities. After the passage of the tax, now “Dr.” Stephen Huss, led the agency into areas not previously possible. A domestic violence shelter was created, locations were opened in High Ridge and Arnold, and the mission statement created: “COMTREA will serve as an innovative, effective and responsive community treatment center for Jefferson County.” Over the next few years, COMTREA introduced Divorce Education programs, treated victims of the 1993 flood, opened the Keaton Center psychiatric nursing home, facilitated the creation of Behavioral Health Response, a regional mental health call center, took over a bankrupt adolescent residential treatment center, created a Child Advocacy Center that provided forensic sexual abuse evaluations for the legal systems of nine Missouri counties, helped develop a County Drug Court and, later, a County Mental Health Court.

 

Dr. Huss secured a grant to establish wide-spread mental health counseling and early intervention to students in county schools—the third “School Liaison” program in the nation. He presented the COMTREA/Seven Habits model to an international symposium in 2001 and later received the National Behavioral Health Care Community Collaboration Award. By 2004, it became again apparent that funding for the needs of the county, especially children, was woefully inadequate. COMTREA’s School Liaisons had been an innovative, highly successful program that needed financial stability and expansion. Dr. Huss and a team of DMH Service Area authorities were successful in passing legislation that allowed counties to enact a sales tax for children’s services. The statutes were amended to allow either “local existing CMHC Boards” or “to be established County Boards” be responsible for the distribution of funds. Jefferson County chose to retain COMTREA’s CMHC Board as the local authority with some modifications. COMTREA was still the Jefferson County Community Mental Health Care Center and responsible for creating a “system of care” for the citizens.

 

Between 2004 and 2016, COMTREA drew national attention when First Lady Roslyn Carter visited and asked COMTREA to present at an
international domestic violence conference. Huss also seized an opportunity to have COMTREA purchase forty-five acres of land inside the city limits of the county seat with a promise of the donation of fifteen more acres at a later date. But, the major issue COMTREA had to contend with was the lack of medical care for its growing mental health care patient population. Diabetes, high blood pressure or other medical
conditions threatened psychiatric stability among its thousands of patients. A group of county service and political leaders asked Dr. Huss
to lead an effort to obtain a Federally Qualified Health Center for Jefferson County. After numerous “starts and stops,” the group finally asked COMTREA to become the FQHC. Dr. Huss presented this idea to the senior staff and Board who both approved it. The effort was successful and COMTREA became an FQHC in 2013. Before Dr. Huss retired in January, 2016, COMTREA further expanded and began providing dental and medical care to those in need regardless of the ability to pay. Of particular significance was the creation of integrated health and behavioral health care within several school systems. The COMTREA school model drew positive state and national attention.