Friday, April 26, 2024
4/26/2024
The New Hampshire (NH) Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) aims to expand access to high quality, evidence-based and trauma-informed mental health and substance use disorder (behavioral health) services by broadly implementing Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) across all rural and urban areas of the state for people with serious mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, any other mental illness and substance use disorders. The program will emphasize access for populations with evidence of disparity or high need including: youth and young adults, Native American and other racial and ethnic minorities, refugees, veterans and members of the armed services, and people who identify as LGBTQ. Community behavioral health workers who identify as members of these special populations will work in concert with CCBHC teams who have been trained in skills for cultural and linguistic appropriate policies and practices for service delivery and data collection. NH DHHS will utilize an expert engagement coordinator to conduct extensive engagement activities through a stakeholder advisory council and statewide outreach and listening sessions to obtain input from consumer, family and other stakeholders into the developing NH CCBHC model. DHHS will complete its statewide self-assessment of needs and behavioral health capacity. The state is utilizing four workgroups, with expert partners, to finalize the NH CCBHC scope of services as well as to develop and expand infrastructure and capacity for state-level CCBHC certification, quality monitoring, data reporting and payment model development. NH DHHS will complete evaluations of cost estimates, conduct actuarial analyses and develop a prospective payment system with unique payments for each CCBHC based on cost estimates. DHHS will support the community mental health centers (CMHCs) to expand infrastructure at the CMHC level through advanced training, learning communities, consultation and technical assistance. By the end of the planning year, three CMHCs will have completed their community assessment, expanded services according to local need as well as to meet the NH CCBHC criteria, completed their cost estimate, provided exemplar data and quality reports, and completed certification. DHHS will support all other NH CCMHCs in developing CCBHC knowledge and capacity through similar supports geared to their introductory needs: learning communities, consultation and technical assistance. Through these year-long state-level and CMHC-level activities, NH will be prepared to implement a CCBHC service system and participate in a national demonstration project. In summary, the proposed CCBHC planning year will enable NH DHHS to obtain stakeholder input into the NH CCBHC model, to develop infrastructure to support CMHCs for becoming and maintaining certification, to develop a Prospective Payment System, to track CCBHC activities, and to establish new processes to improve collection and tracking of all necessary data, including quality metrics, for the national evaluation of the CCBHC model.
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).
