Tuesday, May 21, 2024
5/21/2024
The Behavioral Health Partnerships for Early Diversion of Youth and Adults Program will serve people ages 10 and older who experience behavioral health crises in Southwest Idaho. Southwest District Health (SWDH), Pathways of Idaho, and Washington County will partner to reduce law enforcement and justice system involvement, increase access to crisis care and promote healing and recovery and improve first responder's response to behavioral health crises in SW Idaho. Southwest (SW) Idaho is rich in agriculture, rural living, and cultural heritage. Despite the strengths of SW Idaho communities, behavioral health crises and access to proper crisis care remains a challenge. In Idaho, people experiencing a major behavioral health crises can be housed in a state prison, even if they have not committed a crime. Many more people spend time in county jails for behavior exhibited during a mental health crisis, often being asked to choose between jail or community service, which is not always feasible when in crisis. To divert people experiencing a behavioral health crisis from the justice system to appropriate levels of care, it is imperative to involve law enforcement in the solution and build partnerships where crisis intervention services are the easy and default choice for community members and first responders. Pathways of Idaho, the operating provider for SW Idaho's youth and adult crisis centers, will implement early diversion programming into crisis stabilization services and integrate into after-care planning. SWDH will partner with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and other SWDH programs to train law enforcement and other first responders on how to respond effectively to behavioral health crises, when awaiting or transitioning to a different level of care. These training courses include Crisis Intervention Training, QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer), and Mental Health First Aid. SWDH will also promote early diversion programming and crisis center services via a digital and social marketing campaign to increase awareness of services that can be chosen before involving law enforcement for behavioral health crises. Additionally, to reduce the burden of behavioral health crises on traditional first responders and promote appropriate access to behavioral healthcare, SWDH proposes working with Washington County to develop a Psychiatric Evaluation Team community paramedic program. It is anticipated that the activities of this early diversion program will reach almost 8,000 youth and adults over the five-year project period. Pathways of Idaho and Washington County are committed to the success of these efforts and Region 3's Mobile Response Teams are eager to support the proposed activities in this grant application. Throughout the duration of this project period, we expect to see increased referrals from established community partnerships and the general community to the community crisis centers, increased confidence from first responders to effectively respond to behavioral health crises, prevent future crises, and sustainability of long-term diversion from law enforcement and justice system involvement. Collaboration between the Project Director, Project Evaluator, Pathways of Idaho, justice-involved partners, and non-justice-involved partners will support the accurate and timely reporting of data that showcases diversion from costly and ineffective resources towards appropriate and effective behavioral health crisis services.
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).
