Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
Southern Indian Health Council, Inc. (SIHC) client population lives mainly in the rural southeast of San Diego County, California spanning 1,490 square miles, which is 33% of the county’s 4,526 square miles. SIHC provides our Native American community with two clinic locations in Alpine and Campo, which are approximately 30-40 miles apart. With the current emergency and having to stay home due to COVID-19, we do not know how the effects of this pandemic will have on the Native American community locally, regionally, and nationally. This ambiguity is why SIHC is seeking the funding opportunity to be proactive and get ahead of the potential increase of mental health and substance abuse use. In developing this program, the Mental Health Therapist will develop a quick reference guide to ascertain the best evidenced-based practice, intervention, or screening tool to provide appropriate services for patients indicating several different behavioral concerns from alcohol/drug abuse, depression, major depression, anxiety disorder, PTSD, developmental disorders, and suicidal ideation, attempts, or survivorship interventions. COVID-19 is uncertain of what side-effects the Native American population will face is why the screening process needs to be inclusive. Included in the screening process are other issues related to socio-economic disparity, social isolation, environmental concerns, or victimization. Each of these has a different screening tool, which will be available for the therapist and the chemical dependency counselors. Assessments over the phone will provide the client and the provider a voice recognition of certain tones; however, telehealth provides the voice and the face-to-face interaction that is an important part of building report and trust between client and provider. Recovery support services for SMI and SUD could be considered a life-long necessity. Connections to resources and services are a start, but it is important during the recovery time to let clients know that access to certain services could change. Managing one’s condition is continuous and to have back-ups to current resources is what SIHC will provide. SIHC has on-call, after hour’s that the medical providers are on a rotating schedule and they screen calls for emergency mental health services, which they can then contact the Kumeyaay Family Services director or our psychiatrist for these emergencies. The plan is to also training approximately 25 community members to be peer counselors to support clients during their Wellbriety and recovery. There are three total positions for the Emergency COVID-19 program with a Mental Health Therapist and two La Posta Chemical Dependency Counselors. The Mental Health Therapist is responsible for providing direct telehealth or over the phone individual, couple, family, and group counseling for children, adolescents, teens and adults clients. The La Posta Chemical Dependency Counselors are responsible for providing individual and group counseling for clients via telehealth and/or over the phone. Therapeutic services should focus on engaging the client in Alcohol and Drug recovery services. Data collection will determine the outcomes of the program. Part of this data collection success begins with upgrading our telehealth services to effectively interface behavioral health with clients confined in their homes by COVID-19. The PHQ-9, SBIRT, DAST, CRAFFT, and ACE screening tools provide a score; however, the actual response to each question provides other information that must be tracked. Customized templates are necessary to fit the data collection and evaluation requirements to sustain the program. The upgraded telehealth interface and workflow documentation will collect data to support the outcomes to measure a decrease in crises, increase of behavioral care visits, and decrease in negative screening tool scorings.
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).
