The purpose of this program is to provide crisis intervention services, mental and substance use disorder treatment, and other related recovery supports for children and adults impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Indiana’s COVID-19 project will improve systems to better serve individuals with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) and/or Substance Use Disorder who are experiencing new and/or exacerbated emotional distress due to the current national crisis of COVID-19. Indiana expects that many Hoosiers will struggle with increases in depression, anxiety, trauma, and grief. There is also an anticipated increase in maladaptive coping skills, e.g., increased substance misuse, gambling, social withdrawal (not due to social distancing), anhedonia, making care-takers less likely to provide for themselves and their immediate family members thus lives will be adversely impacted for individuals and families. The purpose of this program is to provide crisis intervention services, mental and substance use disorder treatment, and other related recovery supports for children and adults impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and reach their highest level of physical and emotional well-being through evidence-based treatment. Additionally, the program will also focus on meeting the needs of individuals with mental disorders that are less severe than serious mental illness, including those in the healthcare profession. The project will establish a connection between the community mental health center (CMHC) to allow for immediate evidence based practices utilizing telehealth interventions and Face to Face – when warranted - and linkage to treatment as needed.
Indiana’s COVID-19 project will serve individuals who have existing MH and SUD conditions that cannot be met as easily due to the pandemic. The goal is to insure there is not an influx to emergency room visits, defer persons from inpatient stays, by triaging and provide coping skills for those with less severe than a serious mental illness. These numbers are based on the level of intensity of services to meet project goals for individuals with serious mental illness who are under court order for treatment.
The goals and measurable objectives for this project are:
• Increase consumer adherence to treatment by identifying barriers to treatment and improving treatment outcomes.
• Decrease number of individuals in emergency departments
• Decrease the number of referrals to inpatient psychiatric stays for individuals with SMI.
• Decrease the number of referrals to residential addictions programs
• Increase linkage to community resources to improve social determinants of health.
• By the end of the first grant year, program participants will receive telehealth services to assist them in coping with the pandemic and staying in their homes
• By the end of the first grant year, program participants will show a 25% reduction in inpatient referrals for SMI and/or SUD treatment.
• By the end of the grant year, 50% of program participants will have no new psychiatric hospitalizations.