Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Mark Twain Behavioral Health CCBHC Expansion Project - Project Summary for FY 2020 CCBHC Expansion Grant, (FOA) No. SM-20-012: Mark Twain Behavioral Health ( MTBH) is successfully in its third year of the CCBHC demonstration project. Prior to the demonstration project, Mark Twain Behavioral Health has a 45-year record as a Community Mental Health Center servicing rural northeast Missouri. Our main programming has historically focused on severe and persistent mentally ill adult and SED youth consumers with expansion in co-occurring service delivery since 2007. MTBH was one of the first mental health centers in the state of Missouri and second in the nation to have a CARF approved Healthcare Home Program with a demonstrated successful track record of managing integrated medical and behavioral health needs of our consumers. Since MTBH began its journey over two years ago as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC), the organization has expanded from serving 3,500 consumers annually to over 9,000 consumers by 2019. We have three physical sites located in the northeast Missouri communities of Hannibal, Kirksville, and Macon. Our broad service area is comprised of the HRSA designated rural counties of Adair, Clark, Knox, Lewis, Macon, Marion, Schuyler, Scotland, and Shelby - a region designated by HRSA as a Mental Health Provider Shortage Area (HPSA). MTBH is designated as the administrative agent by the Missouri Department of Mental Health for Service Area 14, which includes these 9 counties. MTBH targets services for behavioral health and substance use needs of our community’s most vulnerable population of SMI adults and children that are under- insured and uninsured. Demographics of clients served by the three MTBH sites include 95% Caucasian, 3% African American, and 2% Latino, which is reflective of the general population in the region. Beginning in 2014, Kirksville has had an influx of immigrant workers and refugees from the Central African Region and Republic of Congo which challenges education, healthcare, business, law enforcement, etc. Overall, poverty rates in the area range from 15-26 %, which exceeds both state and national rates. The majority of consumers’ access our services through Medicaid, Medicare and a small percentage of clients are covered through employment supported insurance programs such as Employment Assistance Program (EAP) and others are self-pay/ slide due to lack of insurance. The project goal is to recruit qualified mental health professionals that are to meet the exponential volume of encounters/clients utilizing our services in the past three years. The initial phase will involve the recruitment and hiring of 4 master’s level clinicians, Crisis Outreach Workers, due to the rise in suicide clusters in Northeast Missouri. As numbers rise in the area of crisis we plan to request further expansion for outpatient therapy services, psychiatry / medication management, and peer and family support to cover the ongoing needs of consumers coming into our system. The state of Missouri has been diligently working with Missouri Medicaid to develop alternatives if the CCBHC model was not supported federally for expansion to move to a CCBHO status and that state plan amendment was in place to support the continuation of services as needed. So MTBH through our state-wide coalition office, Missouri Coalition of Community Behavioral Health, has a working relationship with both Missouri Department of Mental Health and Missouri Medicaid.
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).