CCBHC-IA - Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Network180 CCBHC Improvement and Advancement Project will continue to expand access to mental health and substance use treatment to all who are in need. The project will address the disparities in access and care for Black adults and children throughout the community. With $1 million annually for four years, the project funds 6 children’s clinicians to expand outpatient therapy, and 3 psychiatrists to increase access to the gap in psychiatric care.
The population to be served includes people of all ages who present at the CCBHC with a Mental Illness (MI), Substance Use Disorder (SUD), or Co-occurring Disorder (COD), including veterans. Kent County has a population of over 658,000 and is 82% white, 11% Black or African American, 11% Hispanic, 3% multiple races, 1% American Indian, and <1% other. Veterans are about 4.5% of the population. Adults with a serious mental illness and children with a serious emotional disturbance make up 4% of the population, and 5% have a substance use disorder.
Black adults in the Grand Rapids community are 13% more likely than white adults to have depression and 25% more likely to report poor overall mental health. It is estimated that 76% of Black Michiganders with a substance use disorder go without treatment.
By improving and expanding community-based MH and SUD services like mobile crisis, outreach teams, outpatient therapy, and outpatient psychiatry, this CCBHC-IA grant will seek to reduce disparities that result in Black adults and minors going untreated at the outpatient level and more often being placed in restrictive inpatient settings. In the first year, the CCBHC will increase utilization of outpatient therapy services by Black adults and minors by 25%, as well as promote these services at four events hosted by Black organizations to increase access within Black communities. Additionally, the CCBHC will serve 500 individuals with outpatient psychiatric medication management, including 100 Black clients. The CCBHC’s mobile crisis clinicians will also complete 150 community co-responses with law enforcement, aiding in the diversion of emergency department, inpatient, and jail referrals.
Network180 is partnering with Arbor Circle’s children’s Behavioral Health Home to offer targeted case management, intensive homebased services, psychiatric medication management, outpatient therapy, and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy.
Four years of grant funding will expand and enhance community access to outpatient mental health and substance use therapy, psychiatry, and crisis care, reaching 1075 community members annually (4300 total) and helping to reduce disparities in behavioral health outcomes throughout Kent County, Michigan.