Ohio social worker pushes treatment-first response to addiction and mental illness

Cristina Christensen, a licensed independent social worker in Perrysburg, Ohio, is using her work across behavioral health and criminal justice to expand deflection programs, community partnerships and access to care. Her focus on treatment-first solutions comes as funding gaps and reimbursement limits continue to challenge outreach and recovery support.

Why it matters: - Cristina Christensen’s work sits at the intersection of addiction, mental illness and criminal justice, where early intervention can change whether a person gets treatment or ends up deeper in the system. - Christensen argues that outreach, engagement and community support often need funding before a person is ready for formal treatment. - The stakes are high in Ohio communities that rely on grant-funded programs, deflection services and cross-system coordination.

What happened: - Christensen, a Licensed Independent Social Worker with supervision designation, has spent the past decade working in behavioral health, criminal justice and community services in Ohio. - Her background includes clinical leadership, program development, direct client care and cross-system collaboration. - Her focus includes addiction, mental illness, trauma and crisis response. - Christensen earned a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Bowling Green State University and a Master of Social Work from The Ohio State University. - She spent more than four years as Criminal Justice Program Supervisor at the Family Resource Center of Northwest Ohio. - Christensen also serves as an adjunct professor at Bowling Green State University. - She currently serves on the Wood County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board. - Through her Influential Women profile, Christensen is being highlighted for her advocacy and career in public service.

The details: - Christensen’s path into social work was shaped by her mother, a nurse who struggled with mental health, substance use and chronic medical conditions. - Christensen lost her mother at age 14, and that experience continues to shape how she views the people and systems she serves. - A career aptitude assessment in community college pointed Christensen toward social work after she initially considered nursing. - Christensen says she wants systems to respond with compassion, recognize the whole person and provide support rather than judgment. - The Family Resource Center of Northwest Ohio and the Hancock County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board helped introduce Christensen to deflection work and leadership opportunities. - Christensen oversaw criminal justice initiatives at the Family Resource Center that included law enforcement deflection, jail-based behavioral health services and reentry planning. - She also served as project director for a three-year, $1 million federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant. - That grant work involved law enforcement, local government, treatment providers and community organizations. - Christensen has participated in national conversations through the Center for Health and Justice and Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities in Chicago. - She also spoke alongside representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University about Hancock County’s suicide and overdose fatality review process.

Between the lines: - Christensen’s comments point to a broader systems problem: communities often pay for treatment after a crisis, but not always for the outreach that helps people reach care in the first place. - Her emphasis on deflection reflects a shift away from arrest-only responses for people with substance use and mental health needs. - Christensen’s message to women in the field is that expertise is built through curiosity, consistency and continued learning. - She says collaboration works best when law enforcement, behavioral health professionals, community organizations and people with lived experience treat one another’s perspectives as strengths. - Funding uncertainty remains one of the biggest threats to the work, especially when programs depend on grants that can disappear.

What’s next: - Christensen hopes to expand her impact through clinical leadership, program development and consulting. - She wants to help organizations build practical and compassionate systems that connect people to care earlier. - She plans to keep pushing for sustainable funding models that support outreach, engagement and recovery services. - Christensen says her long-term goal is to help leave the world better for her son, Oliver, whom she calls “Ollipop.”

The bottom line: - Christensen’s career is built around a simple idea: behavioral health and criminal justice work better when communities invest in treatment, outreach and collaboration before a crisis turns into incarceration.