Thursday, April 25, 2024
4/25/2024
To serve South Carolinians experiencing mental health and substance use crises due to the impact of Hurricane Florence, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH) will implement the Highway to Hope Mobile Response Program (H2H) for adults and children. This mobile care program will integrate mental health and primary care and take services directly to affected rural patients who may not have funds or transportation needed to obtain care. The H2H concept is based on a successful, sustainable mental health mobile program implemented by the SCDMH Charleston-Dorchester Mental Health Center for rurally-located patients. The H2H will offer direct crisis services, assessment, evidenced-based therapies, primary care, nursing care, psychiatric care, and suicide prevention strategies. The H2H will also provide a one stop shop for referrals to additional community-based services, such as employment assistance, care coordination/case management, peer support, homeless/housing assistance, deaf services, and services for non-native English speakers. Both in-person and virtual services will be offered. The H2H will utilize a fleet of nine RVs that will be operated by staff to be hired by three SCDMH outpatient mental health centers. Six RVs will be staffed full-time by an RN, an adult serving mental health professional (MHP), and a child serving MHP and will be designated for patients in the areas most rural communities. Three RVs will be staffed full-time by an RN, a school mental health (SMH) clinician, and an adult clinician and will be designated for patients at local schools not currently offering SCDMH SMH services and their parents. While SCDMH has one of the most robust SMH programs in the nation (currently deploying school mental health clinicians to over 848 schools out of more than 1,200 public schools in the state), the mental and physical well-being of children living in this area are still of concern, as at least 87 have not been in contact with either the local school districts in these catchment areas or the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) since the arrival of COVID-19 in the state in March 2020. Also, there are 88 schools in the affected area that do not currently offer SCDMH SMH services. To monitor progress in reaching and serving citizens affected by the overwhelming devastation of Hurricane Florence, SCDMH will track figures related to patients seen, services rendered, caseloads, diagnoses, improvements to daily living skills, and reductions in the level of care needed. SCDMH projects that during the initial year of implementation, the H2H program will have a mental health caseload of at least 1,440 adults and 360 children across the service area at any given time; new patients/SCDMH readmissions across the service area will total 3,000; daily living skills will increase for 80% of patients, and levels of care will be reduced for 75% of patients. Through the H2H, SCDMH will produce demonstrable and productive outreach and care to some of the states most rural and disenfranchised citizens. SCDMH is confident the H2H will become a model program for other rural areas by providing mental health and primary care in the right place, at the right time.
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).
