CCBHC expansion into high-needs areas of Nassau County, NY: to reach/serve 1,400 additional high needs individuals (many uninsured)with behavioral health services over two years - Name: Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Expansion. This project will increase access to integrated mental health/addiction-related treatment to serve more: (1) adults with serious mental illness, (2) adults with substance use disorders, (3) children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance, and (4) individuals with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders living in the most health-challenged localities across Nassau County, NY.
Compared to the county’s general population, our target population disproportionately comprises Black and Latinx individuals and persons of lower income, less education, and less housing stability, including many Veterans. They also face the highest needs with regard to educational, vocational, and social determinants of health and are disproportionately un/under-insured.
Providing SAME-DAY access and using a MOBILE outreach fleet, while co-locating with Federally Qualified Health Centers (primary care) in Hempstead, Freeport, New Cassel, and Elmont, plus other venues frequented by the target population such as The INN soup kitchen (Hempstead) and the Nassau County Department of Social Services, we will fill gaps in mental health and substance use services that leave people here often waiting weeks and months for needed services.
In a coordinated way, this project will deploy (at least) the following 9 Evidence-Based Practices in behavioral health, well suited for our target population: (1) Medication Assisted Treatment/ therapy (MAT); (2) Peer Support; (3) Motivational Interviewing; (4) Integrated Treatment for Co-Occurring Disorders; (5) Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); (6) Family Psychoeducation; (7) Wellness Management & Recovery (WMR); (8) Individual Placement and Support; and (9) Trauma-Informed Care (including, the evidence-based Seeking Safety coping skills therapy model). Strategies/interventions encompass 24-hour mobile crisis response, along with screening, assessment, diagnosis, and patient-centered treatment. Our interventions meet all 21 metrics of New York State’s rigorous CCBHC checklist as well as SAMHSA’s robust 20-page CCBHC Compliance checklist, including provision of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and HIV/Hepatitis A, B, and C testing and linkage to treatment.
This project will reach 1,400 individuals total (525 in Year 1 and 875 in Year 2). The main goal is to increase local access to and improve the quality of community mental and substance use disorder treatment. A small sampling of the measurable objectives we include in our plan are: conducting = 700 behavioral health screenings/assessments using evidence-supported protocols; providing ACT services to = 50 new individuals who are not presently covered by State-supported ACT services; and seeing = 40% of served individuals who were initially identified as presenting moderate or high risk of depression and/or suicidality ultimately showing reduced symptoms of each, respectively, measured via evidence-based tools at follow-up.
