SEABHS Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Expansion Grant - Southeastern Arizona Behavioral Health Services, Inc. (SEABHS) was founded in 1976 to serve as an administrative entity overseeing behavioral health services in four rural counties in Southeastern Arizona, and served as an administrative entity until 1995, when it relinquished that role and became the primary direct service provider through the merger of the largest providers in each of the four counties. SEABHS remained the major behavioral health provider for these counties for over twenty years, providing the full range of outpatient and specialty services with gross annual revenue in excess of $35 million.
About seven years ago, the primary funder for this region changed from an Arizona-based nonprofit to a national for-profit entity which introduced a different philosophy that involved bringing in new service providers and severely limiting local access to specialty services. As a result, providers have struggled financially, and most specialty services were shifted to Tucson, which is the closest metropolitan area, but is in excess of 50 miles away.
SEABHS went from being a comprehensive service provider to an integrated provider of primary care and basic outpatient services with annual revenues of roughly $7 million. By mid-2019, the organization was essentially insolvent and joined the La Frontera Arizona family of companies in an effort to continue providing services. La Frontera is the largest nonprofit behavioral health company in Arizona, providing services in eight Arizona counties, and has a successful history of turning around financially distressed organizations such as SEABHS.
In an effort to stabilize SEABHS financially and to bring back needed specialty services to these local rural communities, certain services will need to be re-established. These services include residential treatment for adults with substance use and co-occurring disorders; transitional housing with day programs for individuals with mental health and substance use disorders who are homeless; peer support to augment case management services and provide navigation assistance; and a 24/7 drop off/walk-in center for law enforcement and local residents to bring individuals who are in psychiatric distress or crisis for assessment, triage, observation, and intervention. Currently, law enforcement officers must travel between 60-100 miles each way to transport these individuals to facilities in Tucson, so reluctantly booking them into the county jail generally becomes the undesirable default strategy. The estimated number of people to be served is 200 the first year and 300 in the second—unduplicated.
These services, in conjunction with those currently being provided, will finally complete the continuum necessary to meet the needs of these communities. This grant is essential for us to rebuild this community-based provider and re-establish the services so desperately needed by these neglected rural communities; the timing to do so could not be better.
