Community Healthcore has developed a multi-faceted approach to addressing unmet mental health needs of 1,000 children, youth and adults living in nine predominantly rural counties in Northeast Texas. Primary strategies include: a)fostering recovery by refocusing care delivery on the social determinants of health, and abating the impact of trauma; and b) addressing workforce shortages and deepening the pool of providers with an understand of multi-faceted recovery.
Project Name. Community Healthcore-Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC)
Populations to Be Served. Children and youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED) and adults with serious mental illness (SMI) or co-occurring disorders (COD) who are low-income.
Strategies/Interventions. CHC has developed a multi-faceted approach tat is aligned with the predominant needs of the population to be served. Primary initiatives will include: 1) Fostering recovery in high need adults and children by refocusing care delivery on the social determinants of health (SDOH) and abating the impact of trauma. For persons with SMI, SED or COD, education, employment, housing, community engagement and connectedness all play major roles in recovery. These interconnections are particularly relevant for individuals who are low-income, as the adverse impact of economic disparity, social injustice, and poor public health conditions can exacerbate the disorders. CHC will create a framework that, in addition to mental health diagnosis, assesses for SDOH and past traumatic experiences to provide a more complete picture of why the individual became ill initially, and what it will take in all domains to recover. 2) Addressing workforce shortages and deepening the pool of providers with an understanding of the multiple facets of recovery. CHC will partner with up to eight regional institutions of higher education to provide paid, yearlong internships for students in behavioral health fields who are nearing graduation. Interns will observe and support practitioners as they work with persons served, and may be offered full-time employment upon graduation.
Goals and Objectives. The project has two goals - support and restore the delivery of clinical services adversely impacted by COVID-19 and promote durable recovery outcomes in low-income individuals impacted by SMI,SED or COD, and build the capacity of CHC to meet regional needs. Among the enabling objectives are conducting trauma-informed, SDOH-focused assessments, providing trauma-informed, patient-centered outpatient services for all age groups, expanding the use of tele-health to overcome access barriers, and establishing a Behavioral Health Academy to attract college students to clinical work and expose them to the benefits inherent in helping professions.
Number of People to Be Served. The project will serve 500 adults and children per year, 1,000 over the two year project period.