South Shore Guidance Center (SSGC) is an outpatient behavioral health (BH) clinic licensed by New York (NY) to provide mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) services for children and adults in Nassau County. SSGC serves individuals of all ages, regardless of their ability to pay and was certified as a Certified Community BH Clinic (CCBHC) in 2021. In 2022, SSGC provided BH services to more than 3,500 children and adults in the most diverse and economically distressed communities of Nassau County. SSGC's population of focus (POF) consists of the large number of foreign born children and adults in the towns of Baldwin, Freeport, Hempstead, Roosevelt and Uniondale who lack English proficiency and are underserved for BH treatment for Severe Emotional Distress (SED), Serious Mental Illness (SMI), SUD MH, and trauma.
Our project will specifically target the needs of our POF to increase access and address their BH and social determinants of health (SDOH) disparities. Our CCBHC Improvement and Advancement project will further increase access, patient engagement, and care coordination for children and adults in Nassau County's most underserved communities, particularly for those who are foreign born and lack English proficiency.
Our measurable objectives align with three main goals: (1) increase access to integrated services for individuals with complex needs including SDOH needs; (2) further expand access to culturally appropriate services, particularly for children and their families; and (3) expand meaningful consumer involvement in CCBHC programming and planning efforts.
Under this project, SSGC will implement all required activities, including (1) looking across current CCBHC services to adopt and comply with revised criteria published by SAMHSA; (2) provide all nine core CCBHC services directly or in partnership; (3) conduct required community needs assessments; (4) complete an attestation demonstrating SSGC has met all CCBHC certification criteria; (5) implement strategies to meaningfully involve consumers and family members in the planning and development of CCBHC programming and services; (6) implement additional CCBHC sustainability strategies: and (7) participate in SAMHSA CCBHC technical assistance activities. SSGC will also implement the allowed activity of Measurement Based Care for all patients served by our CCBHC.
