Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance
Telehealth Enabled Access to Youth Substance Abuse Treatment & Recovery
Abstract
Bay Rivers Telehealth Alliance(BRTA), in partnership with the Middle Peninsula Northern Neck Community Services Board(CSB) and five rural schools systems in Eastern Virginia, will deliver effective and coordinated family-centered, telehealth-enabled substance abuse services including prevention, early intervention, treatment, and recovery support services to adolescents and youth in transition with or at risk for Substance Use Disorder(SUD) and Co-Occurring Disorders(COD).
By enhancing and expanding the system of care with comprehensive evidence-based practices, building telehealth infrastructure linking Middle and High Schools in the region with integrated trauma-informed, outpatient services, as well as support for families and caregivers, and case management to link with wrap-around services to meet social determinants of health, the proposed system of care will meet the complex needs of adolescents with or at risk of developing Substance Use Disorder and Mental Illness, and their families/primary caregivers.
The geographic catchment area for service delivery comprises six counties of two contiguous, rural regions in Eastern Virginia known as the Northern Neck (Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland counties) and the Middle Peninsula (Essex and Middlesex counties).
Evidence-Based Practices to be used to deliver services include the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA), Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT), Seeking Safety: An Evidence-Based Model for Substance Abuse and Trauma/PTSD, Change Companies Curriculum, and Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy (ESFT). By initiating, expanding and facilitating Behavioral Health Services for Prevention and Early Intervention in the Schools (Goals 1 and 2), it is anticipated that more youth and families will be identified and effectively referred for the new capacity developed for SUD Treatment and Recovery Support Services by the MPNNCSB (Goal 3). Utilizing telehealth enabled systems of care to connect students, families and clinicians in school, at home and in clinical settings, will increase access to care by reducing the barriers many families face in this region due to travel distances, time constraints, limited income and family responsibilities. In addition to training staff at the schools and the MPNNCSB, the project anticipates serving the following number of unduplicated youth.
Total Number of Unduplicated Individuals Served by Project:
Year 1 – ending 8/31/22: 60; Year 2 – ending 8/31/23: 100; Year 3 – ending 8/31/24:120;
Year 4 – ending 8/31/25:140; Year 5 – ending 8/31/26: 160; Total - 580