Monday, December 30, 2024
12/30/2024
To address the projected increase in the number of South Carolinians experiencing mental health and/or substance use crises, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) will implement the SCDMH COVID-19 Crisis Response Initiative, a three-pronged, statewide approach to expanding crisis services that will provide linkages to more intensive, integrated care, as well as financial assistance to remove barriers to care. The SCDMH COVID-19 Crisis Response Initiative consists of the following new programming: the Crisis Counseling Program (CCP), a telephone line designed to connect COVID-19 affected persons who are experiencing serious mental illness (SMI), a mental illness of lesser degree (MI), and/or a substance use disorder (SUD) to existing available resources and care (including but not limited to crisis services, assessment, therapies delivered using evidence-based models, peer support, employment assistance, care coordination/case management, suicide prevention assistance, homeless/housing assistance, nursing care, psychiatric care, primary care, deaf services, and services for non-native English speakers); a Financial Assistance Program which will assist persons suffering from SMI, MI, and/or SUD - including those in the justice-involved population facing reentry to society due to early release from detention to limit the spread of COVID-19 - in paying for treatment services and medication; and the Healthcare Outreach Team (HOT), a telehealth team that will specifically address the needs of healthcare workers experiencing crisis due to COVID-19. The department is confident that these programs will fulfill our goals of expanding access to crisis services and assisting more of our states citizens in obtaining mental health and substance abuse services. To achieve these goals, SCDMH will partner with the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services (DAODAS) via SCDMHs existing Community Crisis Intervention and Response (CCRI) call line, via the new CCP call line, and via the Healthcare Outreach Team telehealth program. To monitor our progress in reaching and serving patients affected by COVID-19, we will develop a marker in our existing electronic medical records system to flag COVID-19 patients; we will track all incoming calls on the CCP and CCRI lines from COVID-19 affected patients seeking SCDMH and/or DAODAS services; we will monitor the amount of financial assistance we are able to provide to underinsured/uninsured SMI, MI, and SUD patients; and we will track the number of healthcare workers receiving telehealth services through the HOT. Once these programs are fully implemented, we expect to see an uptick in the overall number of patients served by the agency and estimate that in the first year of the program we will begin providing services to an additional 200 persons per week over our normal volume, which would result in an increase of 10,400 persons served annually and more than 13,000 persons served over the course of the grant period.
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).