Eyerly Ball Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) will enhance the continuum of behavioral health care services through its proposed CCBHC project entitled, “Increasing Access to Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment Services, Improving Coordination Between Healthcare Providers, and Enhancing Availability of Crisis and Suicide Prevention Services.” This project’s population of focus includes children and adults with mental illness (MI), serious mental illness (SMI), serious emotional disturbance (SED), substance use disorders (SUD), and co-occurring disorders (COD). In order to most effectively serve this identified population, Eyerly Ball CMHS will be utilizing the following evidence-based practices: Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), First Episode Program (FEP), Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation (IPR), Motivational Interviewing, Peer and Family Support Specialists, and Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT). Specifically within our outpatient clinics, psychotherapeutic interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy are tailored based on an individual’s developmental phase in life. With project funding, Eyerly Ball CMHS is proposing the following goals: increase engagement in behavioral health services by improving access to care and creating a presence in area hospital systems, decrease hospital and emergency department utilization by increasing availability and awareness of crisis and suicide prevention services, and increase continuity of care through comprehensive screening activities to ensure individuals have access to the resources needed to maintain their physical and mental health and well-being. Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound objectives have been developed for each goal, including expanding the Eyerly Ball Enrollment Team by hiring ten new Navigators, Behavioral Health Coordinators, and Access Coordinators; decreasing consumer emergency department utilization by 15% by making use of appropriate crisis services; and increasing the number of referrals to a PCP as indicated through age-appropriate screenings for key health indicators and health risks, as well as diabetes, metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors. Eyerly Ball CMHS will serve 2,000 unduplicated consumers during the first year and 3,800 unduplicated consumers over the project period of two years.
