Tulsa, OK (3 April 2025) – Family & Children’s Services (FCS) has proudly served the Tulsa community for over 100 years and has been a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) since 2021. Over the past century, we have fostered an unapologetically open connection with the Tulsa community and the state of Oklahoma. Recently, our name and role as a CCBHC have faced criticism. While addressing this criticism momentarily diverts resources from serving the community, our commitment to our clients and stakeholders compels us to respond.
CCBHCs were developed in the modern age of transparency. They are, by design, highly regulated, reviewed, and transparent. But well before the CCBHC concept was introduced, FCS’s business practices were a matter of public record, and they still are. Literally. One need not dig any deeper than the FCS website to find current and past Annual Reports. The truth about our financial practices is quite easy to access, and the numbers behind our operations are quite easy for anyone or any entity to verify.
FCS is an integral part of the healthcare continuum in the Tulsa area. We work alongside hospitals, healthcare providers, first responders, police departments, fire departments, and pharmacies to meet critical needs and save lives. Just ask the once suicidal individual who now has hope. Ask the first responders, who rely on necessary interventions made by mental health professionals during crisis situations. Ask the child who is recovering from trauma or the family who has become whole after getting their children back. FCS is not a faceless, aimless, state-funded system. It is, in the truest sense of the word, healthcare.
Despite recent scrutiny tied to funding, which impacts Oklahomans in need, we remain dedicated to our mission of promoting, supporting and strengthening the well-being and behavioral health of adults, children, and families. We are doing everything possible to avoid disruption of care, but the news of a funding pause is concerning. While we learned on April 3 that our mobile crisis funding had been restored through the end of the fiscal year, we remain focused on the need to restore funding simultaneously for our colleagues throughout the state whose ability to maintain access to vital mental health and substance use care has also been impacted. We are aware of the irony that, while we have been tasked with providing comfort and care to our community, we are uncertain ourselves, and our clients are now publicly uncertain about whether our services will remain at their present level. While we are not pulling back on providing lifesaving services to those in need, it would be disingenuous to pretend that the statements made and possibilities asserted are not making us and our clients feel particularly vulnerable.
Media inquiries, please contact Chris Posey at 918-600-3103.