Tuesday, April 23, 2024
4/23/2024
Cornerstone Montgomery's two-year Integrated Care Expansion program will provide mental health and substance use disorder treatment an additional 360 residents of Montgomery County, Maryland who do not currently access treatment and expand on our existing CCBHC program, which targets adults. Coordinated behavioral and physical health care has improved our target group's outcomes based on our current programmatic results, and we aim to continue improving overall health outcomes, reducing emergency department visits, and reducing hospital admissions for children and adolescents, and individuals with substance use disorders. In Montgomery County, only 41% of adults and 50% of children with mental illness, and less than 25% of people with substance use disorders, access treatment. Most of these individuals are defined as having very low or low-income levels (according to Federal Poverty thresholds). The goal of the expanded project is to implement additional treatment services, filling a large gap in the county treatment network. CCHBC funding will cover start-up costs of hiring new staff as we develop services for children, adolescents, and those with substance use disorders. The Child & Adolescent (C&A) program will serve adolescents aged 12+. The program replaces working with DCO partners and will include an additional child therapist, a registered nurse, and a case manager/educational specialist. Care will be coordinated with schools, families, and potentially the juvenile justice system to address co-occurring issues. Service hours will expand into evenings and weekends to support this population. The Substance Use Disorder (SUD) program will expand through accreditation as a substance use provider (in addition to our mental health accreditation), beginning American Society of Addiction Medication (ASAM) Level 1 services in Year 2. In addition to the services offered by our Intensive Treatment of Co-occurring Disorders (ITCOD) program, we will increase medical care coordination services and administrative support for this expanded population which tends to have co-occurring medical and other issues. Services include medication management, individual and group therapy, family therapy, DBT, and stage-wise SUD groups. Other ongoing service programs include Telehealth and a smoking cessation program. We expect to serve 150 new clients in Year 1 and 210 new clients in Year 2 across the programs. Our objectives are to: 1) commence the C&A program September 2020 serving at least 25 clients by June 2021 and 50 in Year 2; 2) identify at least 10 people who quit smoking in Year 1, and 20 in Year 2; and 3) identify at least 5% decrease in BP, BMI, A1C, emergency department visits, and hospital readmission rates each year. Expanding C&A and SUD services will provide integrated, coordinated behavioral and physical healthcare for many of the most vulnerable residents in our community.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
