The Eastern Montana Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Planning, Development and Implementation Project will support the Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center (EMCMHC) to provide the full continuum of community behavioral health services to youth and adults with serious emotional disturbance, serious mental illness and co-occurring disorders in 17 frontier counties in Eastern Montana. EMCMHC’s 48,071 square mile service area has a population density of only 1.67 people per square mile, making it one of the most rural regions in the lower 48 states. The area includes all or part of three American Indian Reservations: Fort Peck, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap. 13% of the residents in the region live in poverty and 12% are uninsured. (American Community Survey). The suicide rate in Eastern Montana is 28.8 per 100,000, elevated relative to Montana as a whole and more than double the national rate of 13.4 per 100,000. (Montana Vital Statistics and CDC Wonder). Access to robust, community based behavioral health services are limited in Eastern Montana. The federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designates all of Eastern Montana a High Needs Geographic Health Professional Shortage Area for mental health.
With a lack of capacity to serve individuals with behavioral health issues, it is critical to develop robust community-based mental health and co-occurring services to serve the region in order to reduce crises and prevent out-of-community transportation to higher levels of care. Through this project, EMCMHC will expand and strengthen its behavioral health services in the region, partnering with other community-based healthcare partners, hospitals and telehealth services, to provide robust crisis, care coordination, integrated care and evidence based practices to the population of focus. By the end of Year 1, EMCMHC is committed to meeting all of the CCBHC criteria while evaluating, improving and working to sustain all services throughout the project period and beyond.
The goals and measurable objective for the project are:
Goal 1 | Facilitate access to the full continuum of community based behavioral healthcare for residents of Eastern Montana
• Objective 1.1 By the end of Year 1, 100% of EMCMHC clients have access to 24/7 mobile crisis and crisis receiving/stabilization services
• Objective 1.2 By the end of Year 4, increase to 200 the number of EMCMHC clients receiving Care Coordination to support their treatment, recovery, and access to services
Goal 2 | Develop the infrastructure to effectively implement and sustain all CCBHC services in Eastern Montana
• Objective 2.1 By the end of Year 3, implement four new Evidence Based Practice modalities for EMCMHC CCBHC clients.
• Objective 2.2 By the end of Year 1, facilitate increased access to primary care, inpatient care, crisis services and Medication Treatment through implementation of 5 DCOs.