Spring River CCBHC - Spring River Mental Health & Wellness, Inc. (Spring River) is a community mental health center (CMHC) in southeast Kansas that proposes to seek certification as a certified community behavioral health clinic (CCBHC). Spring River will provide services to individuals of all ages with serious mental illness (SMI), severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI), serious emotional disturbance (SED), substance use disorder (SUD), and co-occurring disorders (COD). The proposed project will also seek to address disparities to accessing care faced by children, individuals with low incomes, and those with substance use disorder (SUD) in the target geographic area. As a CMHC, Spring River provides community-based outpatient assessment and treatment for behavioral health; however, it needs to establish itself as a CCBHC to transform the system of care to meet the certification criteria and improve the quality and effectiveness of CCBHC services. Through this proposal, the agency will expand and enhance these services, primarily through staff recruitment and retention efforts and through implementation of and training in additional evidence-based practices (EBPs). For this project, Spring River proposes to serve 1,821 unduplicated clients over four years. Population to be Served: Spring River serves individuals with SMI, SED, SUD, and COD in a rural southeast Kansas county. Just over 14% of the general population of Cherokee County lives at or below the federal poverty level, with nearly one in five (19.6%) individuals under the age of 18 living in poverty. Cherokee County ranks among the bottom 5% of Kansas counties in terms of health outcomes for its residents (102nd out of 105 counties). Factors affecting this ranking include these high poverty rates, alcohol/substance use, limited access to primary care physicians (4,000 residents per physician, compared with the state average of 1,280 residents per physician), food insecurity, and higher-than-average uninsured rates (13% of adults and 5% of children). Over the past three years, Spring River has served an increasing number of youth, providing services to 503 youth last year (a 44.1% increase over 2020 service numbers). The agency has also seen a growing prevalence of substance use disorder (SUD) among clients served. Strategies/Interventions: This funding will support the expansion of services offered and the use of evidence-based practices. This will include training in and implementation of Individual Placement and Support (IPS), trauma-informed care, Zones of Regulation, and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT). Spring River will increase its workforce capacity to provide the required CCBHC services, including crisis response and intervention, expanded SUD services, targeted case management, and improved care coordination and collaboration. Goals and Objectives: The goals of this CCBHC project are to improve access to whole-person integrated care and coordinated care through increased workforce capacity and staff retention efforts, to improve the quality of care and access to evidence-based practices targeted to individuals facing disparities within the population area of focus, and to expand outpatient SUD treatment services for individuals in Cherokee County. Spring River proposes to serve a total of 1,821 individuals over the four-year grant period.
