Mississippi’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) program will support the redesign of the state’s behavioral health (BH) delivery system to meet the needs of all Mississippians. Our focus is adults who have serious mental illness (SMI), children and youth with serious emotional disturbance (SED), and people with substance use disorders (SUD) and co-occurring disorders (COD), with priority for access to rural and minority populations. Mississippi is one of the most rural U.S. states-- 60.0% of 2.9 million residents reside in rural areas. Ranked 49th in the U.S. for poverty, 19.4% (vs. 12.8% nationally) of Mississippi households live below the federal poverty line.i. Rural populations experience poverty rates higher than their urban counterparts (20.5% vs. 16.7%, respectivelyii). African American (31.3%) and Native American (36.1%) populations experience higher rates of poverty compared to Whites (12.1%)iii and African Americans predominate in rural Mississipppi’s regions, which are some of the most impoverished areas in the country.iv Children and youth experience higher rates of poverty (28%) vs. adults aged 18 to 64 (17.6%) and those aged 65 years and older (13.8%).v
In 2021, nearly half the adult population (42.7%) reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression,vi however more than half (59.3%) of adults with any mental illness report not receiving treatmentvii and 70.0% of Mississippi children with major depression are not receiving treatment vs. 60.3% nationally.viii 80% of Mississippians live in a health professional shortage areaix and gaps are particularly acute in rural areas.x
Mississippi’s goal for the Planning Grant is to transition its statewide network of 12 CMHCs to adopt the CCBHC model for integrated care delivery during the Demonstration. This will be informed by robust stakeholder engagement and begin with two CMHCs that serve Mississippi’s most underserved rural and urban populations: the Delta and Gulf Coast regions. CMHCs already provide CCBHC services but must expand their workforce, enhance their practice, and increase their community access points by adopting a common set of tools, approaches, and organizational commitments. DMH will engage CCBHC consumers, youth, family members and communities in its Steering Committee, supporting Workgroups, and an Advisory Council to ensure they solicit meaningful feedback in the development, implementation, and ongoing monitoring of the Planning Grant. The CCBHC Planning team will: 1) expand telehealth; 2) optimize a new certification process to credential unlicensed mental health professionals to create a more sustainable and diverse workforce within the BH system; 3) establish a Prospective Payment System (PPS-1); 4) prepare an application to participate in the CCBHC Demonstration Program; 5) enhance the data collection and reporting capacity to support the evaluation of impact on access, quality, scope of services, and cost of BH services; and 6) train providers on continuous quality improvement. We will serve approximately 13,000 people during the Planning Grant period.