The Guidance Center is seeking to continue the development and enhancement of services and programs initiated under previous Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) projects, including the 2016 Pilot Program in Pennsylvania, and the 2020 Expansion Grant, through the 2022 CCBHC Improvement and Expansion Grant (FY 2022 CCBHC-IA Grant). The intent of this project is to continue our efforts to transform the way behavioral health and substance abuse treatment is provided in rural McKean County, PA by offering innovative, comprehensive, evidence-based care to any child or adult in need, regardless of their ability to pay or their place of residence. The Guidance Center expects to serve 4348 consumers annually and 5339 individuals across the four-year span of the CCBHC-IA grant.
As is common with much of Appalachia, residents in our catchment area tend to experience high levels of poverty, high rates of mental health and substance use disorders, and insufficient health care availability to meet physical and behavioral health needs. To address the gap between demand and availability, The Guidance Center has identified several strategies for improving access to care including transitioning to a same-day access model for evaluations, strengthening partnerships and innovating processes for improving recruitment and retention of qualified staff, and adding more group treatment options. We also aim to elevate our delivery of crisis services by hiring additional staff, intensifying training, incorporating additional means for consumers to access crisis services, and enhancing collaboration with first responders and other community partners. Under this project, The Guidance Center will advance our use of measurement-based care and evidenced-based practices (EBPs) to provide recovery-oriented treatment that is built around the individual needs, preferences, and values of our consumers. In addition to advancing their training in the wide array of EBPs currently available, providers will receive additional training in EBPs that specifically address the needs of underserved individuals, including the geriatric population, the LGBTQ+ community, and veterans and military families.
Our region is ranked in the top 25% of "most disadvantaged" areas by the Area Deprivation Index and results from recent surveys and focus groups conducted by Bradford Regional Medical Center found that in the past year, 30.8% of respondents went without needed medical care, 60% didn't receive care because of lack of local providers/specialists and 63.6% identified access to quality healthcare as a top community problem. As part of a community-wide team seeking to improve social determinants of health for residents in our catchment area, The Guidance Center will improve care coordination and enrich the quality and frequency of collaboration between local health care providers and other community partners, including the Veteran's Administration, schools, and criminal justice systems. To increase opportunities for consumers to be directly involved with policy-making, program development, and operational decision-making processes, The Guidance Center will increase the percentage of consumers/family members involved with advisory work groups and agency committees, utilize measurement-based data and consumer feedback to improve the quality of the services offered, and upgrade our Health Information Technology to allow consumers to more easily access their own health record and to improve our ability to meaningfully coordinate care and share health information across provider systems.