Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - Needs to be addressed: Seldovia Village Tribe (SVT) owns and operates three FQHCs in the southern Kenai Peninsula communities of Homer, Anchor Point, and Seldovia, Alaska, which have a total population of approximately 14,374 residents. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing reports that “nearly six in 10 Americans seeking or wanting to seek mental health services either for themselves or for a loved one”. Our Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) echoes this perception. Our Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is a collaborative effort of the entire region under the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnership (MAPP) of the Southern Kenai Peninsula. As a collaborative initiative, the MAPP can reach a significantly larger group of respondents than any single organization could. The 2023 MAPP of Southern Kenai Peninsula Community Health Needs Assessment rankings for areas that respondents consider negatively affecting individuals and their families have mental/emotional health issues as the second. When respondents were asked what aspects of the community most need improvement, during the same time, substance abuse treatment and behavioral health services ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. Areas most negatively affecting respondents and their family mental/emotional health ranked second for the first time in 15 years. Retention and recruitment issues have historically hindered our capacity to provide stable and consistent behavioral health services, including a lack of behavioral health team-based support and being limited by our current tribal billing status. As with many health centers, we have made progress in developing and adopting integrated care. Barriers we have encountered include workforce shortages, complex documentation requirements, payer-specific billing rules, communication barriers, financial challenges with start-up costs, and low reimbursement rates. Proposed Services: The HRSA Behavioral Health Services Expansion opportunity will allow SVT to take a multifaceted approach to improving access to behavioral health services for the populations we serve. Improve available workforce options to increase the behavioral health team from 1.2 FTE to 5.0 FTE. Building our behavioral health team will improve access to services by providing multiple modalities (short-term intervention, long-term therapy, medication assistance, and recovery support), as well as team support for primary care providers. Additional MOUD training will be provided to clinic staff to ensure behavioral health services are available to all patients seeking care. The billing constraints of behavioral health staff have been an ongoing challenge for our community health center’s ability to have a self-supporting program. The State of Alaska requires the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) accreditation for SVT to bill outside of its tribal status. To ensure the successful application and retention of CARF accreditation, we propose to have a full-time administrator to manage the application process, developing workflows, documentation, policies, and procedures. Population Group to be served: SVT will serve the underinsured and uninsured populations, Indigenous, and other minority populations that have difficulty accessing behavioral health services and primary care. Vulnerable populations that often have difficulty accessing care or may be reluctant to receive care will also be supported in getting the services they need.
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).