H79SM085688

Addressing Behavioral Health Disparities Due to COVID-19 by Strengthening and Supporting the System of Care

Achieve Behavioral Health (Achieve) will expand outreach and access to behavioral health services (BH) for individuals disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 in Rockland and Orange Counties, with a focus on children (>18), women (18+), and the Hispanic community. We will accomplish this by enhancing our telehealth infrastructure, increasing staff supervision, training, and support, and implementing a robust outreach and school consultation program.

Achieve's CMHC project goals are to:

1) Enhance our telehealth infrastructure to increase access to BH and specialty care services;
2) Increase patient monitoring and assessments to improve quality outcomes;
3) Stabilize staff burnout and turnover;
4) Increase access to BH services for school-aged children; and
5) Increase access to BH services for the Hispanic community.

To address these goals, we plan to establish eight virtual pods to provide private, flex-space for telehealth or face-to-face services. Additionally, we will hire 1 FTE telehealth/IT coordinator to support and expand Achieve's telehealth infrastructure. Our aim is to increase the use of telehealth BH services by 12% within 6 months of the award and telehealth BH specialty care by 15% within 9 months of the award.

We will implement a remote patient screening and monitoring tool, completing 30,000 screenings/assessments over the two-year project to reduce suicidality among 45% of clients with a positive screen for suicidal ideation upon intake. Furthermore, we aim to reduce PHQ-9 scores among 40% of clients with a positive clinical PHQ-9 depression screen within the first 90 days of treatment.

Achieve will also create a consultation and guidance center for schools. Each year, this center will train and supervise 30 teachers in providing rapid crisis response and de-escalation, as well as 50 faculty/administrative staff on social skills, anxiety, early identification of children at risk of serious emotional disturbance (SED), and referral to services. We seek to increase identification and referrals of children from schools by 25% over the 2-year project period.

To address the mental health needs of our staff and prevent further burnout, we will establish a training center that offers training, professional support, and development for staff. Additionally, we will hire two FTE clinical supervisors with expertise in trauma and substance use for additional staff support. We will also offer four full-day workshops to increase staff skills, support staff, prevent burnout, and increase staff cohesion post-COVID.

Finally, we will hire 1 FTE outreach director to develop and implement outreach strategies and referral pathways for the Hispanic community. Our goal is to increase BH service provision to this population by 100% over the two-year grant period.

The project will serve 1,768 unduplicated individuals in the first year of the project and 2,334 throughout the lifetime of the project.

Bikur Cholim

TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO STATES AND TERRITORIES TO ENABLE THEM TO CARRY OUT THE STATE'S PLAN FOR PROVIDING COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES TO ADULTS WITH A SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS AND TO CHILDREN WITH A SERIOUS EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE, MONITOR THE PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY BASED MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM, PROVIDE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO STATES AND THE MENTAL HEALTH PLANNING COUNCIL THAT WILL ASSIST THE STATES IN PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY BASED MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM.

93.958 - Block Grants for Community Mental Health Services

Division of Grants Management [HHS - SAMHSA]

Monsey, New York 109523429 United States

Single Zip Code

Community Mental Health Centers Grant Program (SM-21-014)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 09/29/23 to 03/31/24 and the total obligations have decreased 2% from $4,998,760 to $4,890,540.