Wednesday, April 24, 2024
4/24/2024
Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA)'s Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (DBHR) seeks to implement a family and youth-specific crisis intervention model that is designed as as an upstream, comprehensive array of services to maintain youth safe in their communities in its SOC Expansion and Sustainability project, Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) for Youth, Families, and Caregivers. The population of focus is youth ages 0-21 with a serious emotional disturbance (SED) and their families and caregivers in Pierce and Spokane counties. As part of the project, DBHR will develop policy changes, identify infrastructure needs, and develop financing mechanisms to ensure that all youth and families have access to a continuum of culturally responsive, community-based care while ensuring coordination with the implementation of the 988 crisis service that was passed into law under HB 1477 in 2021. HCA will partner with Behavioral Health Administrative Services Organizations (BH-ASOs) in both counties, which are entities responsible for administering crisis and other services under fully integrated managed care, to design services that respond to an increased need for MRSS as emergency departments (EDs), inpatient facilities, and other out-of-home treatment settings continue to be overwhelmed. Data show that youth in both areas are struggling with increased depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts, with higher rates for youth of color, LGBTQ+ youth, youth with cross-systems involvement, and disabled youth. Furthermore, families and caregivers have indicated a desire to see systemic transformation to center on family-centric care models. DBHR will use SOC funding to pilot both a family-focused 72 hour response and 8-week stabilization phase comprised of an array of services, evidence-based practices, peer support, and linkages to community resources to demonstrate the model's effectiveness in improving behavioral health outcomes and diverting from more costly, trauma-inducing interventions. The goals and objectives are: Goal 1. Ensure that all youth and families in Pierce and Spokane counties have access to a continuum of crisis prevention and intervention by 1A. Providing MRSS to 300 youth and families in year 1 and 400 for each subsequent year; 1B. Developing payment methods to ensure all can receive services regardless of coverage; 1C. Developing a sustainability plan for MRSS. Goal 2: Maintain youth safe at home and in the community and prevent movement to more restrictive settings by 2A. Reducing ED admissions by 20% for clients in pilot programs; 2B. Improving mental health status and functioning for 80% of clients that participate in ongoing services; 2C. Decreasing psychiatric hospitalizations by 20% for program clients. Goal 3: Increase community awareness of behavioral health needs by providing prevention and treatment oriented education and outreach by 3A. Providing outreach to area schools, providers, and organizations; 3B. Reaching at least 400 youth and families in the first year and 500 in subsequent years through outreach. Goal 4: Infuse family and youth voice into crisis systems by 4A. Providing training to at least 100 community members on MRSS and evidence-based practices each year; 4B. Providing parent/youth peer support to at least 50 individuals per year; 4C. Developing MRSS advisory sub-committee as part of the Children's Behavioral Health Governance Structure. Goal 5: Develop infrastructure and data collection processes to support Statewide sustainability of MRSS by 5A. Developing and refining data collection processes to capture key indicators; 5B. Implementing a continuous quality improvement plan to monitor and enhance MRSS in concert with youth and family-led organizations. At least 300 youth and families will receive direct services in Year 1, and 400 will be served each subsequent year for a total of 1,500 over the life cycle of the grant.
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).
