WKLM interviews Nicole Williams on mental health and recovery services
Nicole Williams laid out how the Wayne and Holmes board connects residents to 988, crisis response, recovery help and housing navigation across Holmes County.
WKLM’s interview with Nicole Williams put a local face on a system many Holmes County residents touch only in a crisis. Williams, the executive director of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties, oversees the board that funds and coordinates behavioral-health and addiction services across both counties.
The board says its mission is to provide leadership, support and funding to community partners and agencies delivering mental health and addiction prevention, treatment and recovery services. Its vision is broader still: promote wellness for all community members while ensuring access to a continuum of high-quality, recovery-oriented services. For families in Millersburg, Berlin, Walnut Creek and Holmesville, that means the board is meant to be a practical starting point when a school counselor, doctor, deputy or relative needs help finding the right door.
Residents can reach crisis help through 988, or call 330-264-9029 for crisis and mobile response. The board also lists 330-466-0678 for substance-use crisis, 330-464-1423 for recovery assistance and 330-749-2638 for housing navigation. Those numbers show how the system is built to do more than respond after an emergency; it is set up to connect people to care, recovery support and housing-related help before problems deepen.
Williams has led the board since February 2024, after serving as chief operating officer at the Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging. The board’s public materials identify her as the executive director and show ongoing work tied to funding applications, rural outreach programming, recovery housing and a Wayne County Quick Response Team contract in 2026.
The board also points to the community partnerships behind that work. The Wayne-Holmes Suicide Prevention Coalition operates as a program of NAMI Wayne and Holmes Counties, and the Partnership for Drug-Free Wayne & Holmes Counties meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second Friday of February, April, June, August, October and December. On the harm-reduction side, the board says its Quick Response Team model is built on the principles of the Good Samaritan Law and is led with OneEighty, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department and Medway DEA.
Holmes County commissioners publicly recognized Williams and mental-health professionals with a proclamation in May 2024, underscoring the board’s local role. With a headquarters in Wooster but countywide phone access and partner agencies on both sides of the county line, the board functions as part of the everyday infrastructure that helps residents move from uncertainty to treatment, recovery and stable support.
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