Tuesday, September 26, 2023
9/26/2023
Through this grant, Bluebonnet Trails Community Services (BTCS) will serve 1,600 adults and youth in Central Texas who are experiencing serious mental illness (SMI), serious emotional disturbance (SED), and co-occurring disorders (COD). To address their needs, BTCS will enhance access to integrated services through specialized jail diversion coordination; school- and field-based services for adults and youth with a recent behavioral health crisis; police department-based mobile crisis response; and specialized care coordination for individuals with SMI or SED seeking recovery from substance use disorders. BTCS will serve at least 400 individuals per project year using evidence-based practices such as psychosocial rehabilitation; care coordination and case management; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment; and Wellness Recovery Action Planning. To address the unique needs of our service area, BTCS has aligned our project with three primary goals: (1) Increase timely access to pre- and post-booking jail diversion for persons experiencing an SMI, SED, or COD; (2) Increase access to coordinated behavioral health services to reduce the risk of crisis or crisis relapse; and (3) Advance CCBHC services through infrastructure development supporting processes for collecting, reporting, and tracking encounter, outcome, and quality data. To measure goal progress, BTCS has committed to ten objectives designed to improve behavioral health access. To increase timely access to pre- and post-booking jail diversion for persons experiencing an SMI, SED, or COD, BTCS identifies the following objectives: (1) A Jail Diversion Coordinator will conduct an assessment to include treatment recommendations within two business days for at least 90% of persons referred each project year; (2) BTCS will track annual post-booking jail diversion data for persons with co-occurring MH and IDD conditions, demonstrating a >5% increase, year over year, in the number of persons diverted from jail into treatment; (3) Two police department-based mobile crisis clinicians will document 100% of encounters, including hospital and jail diversion outcome data, when deployed to conduct a behavioral health crisis assessment; and (4) BTCS will track annual arrest diversion data with a partnering police department, demonstrating a >5% increase, year over year, in the number of persons diverted from an arrest. To increase access to coordinated behavioral health services to reduce the risk of crisis or crisis relapse, BTCS identifies the following objectives: (1) Five school and field-based clinicians will coordinate crisis facility discharge plans with partnering Independent School Districts and families for at least 75% of youth admitted into the program; (2) BTCS will track annual hospital recidivism rates for youth and adults enrolled in the program, maintaining a <15% recidivism rate each project year; and (3) A specialized Substance Use Disorder Program Care Coordinator will follow-up on social determinants of health-related referrals from the treatment team within two business days for at least 80% of persons enrolled during each project year. To advance CCBHC services through infrastructure development supporting processes for collecting, reporting, and tracking encounter, outcome and quality data, BTCS identifies the following objectives: (1) BTCS will launch a primary care electronic health record with an interface to BTCS’ existing electronic health record, allowing primary care and behavioral health providers to view integrated health records for shared patients; (2) BTCS will utilize a web-based solution to document and track outcomes for mental health calls received by BTCS clinicians embedded in the 911 emergency call center in Williamson County; and (3) BTCS will utilize data collected from these software systems to inform at least one community needs assessment during the project period.
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).
