FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - Missoula County / Partnership Health Center (PHC) – Health Program Award Number H80CS00528 – seeks to expand mental health and substance use services, including MOUD, in the PHC service area in Western Montana which is designated as a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA). Montana consistently ranks in the top five states for rates of suicide, and rates of substance use are also high contributing to behavioral health conditions. American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Montanans experience each of these risk factors at higher rates than non-Hispanic whites. This project seeks to increase access to Mental Health (MH), Substance Use Disorder (SUD), and MOUD services for new and existing patients in our service area through the hiring of 7.0 FTE new staff members including four Behavioral Health Clinicians, one Psychiatric-Mental Health Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (PMH-APRN), and two enabling services staff members. We will also utilize CHWs and QI/QA expertise of existing staff members. The primary strategy for increasing MH, SUD, and MOUD patients will include bolstering our services “Beyond the Walls” of our main PHC Creamery and Alder clinic locations, to our satellite clinic locations throughout the service area. This expansion includes full-time Behavioral Health and MOUD access at PHC’s clinics (already in scope) located at the Poverello Center homeless shelter; the Missoula Food Bank and Community Center; and the Watershed Clinic and Navigation Center (previously Trinity Clinic), which is co-located with PHC’s Blue Heron Place permanent supportive housing and next to the Missoula County Detention Facility. Priority populations include people experiencing homelessness, people who are low-income and food insecure; justice-involved individuals; and AI/AN individuals. A disproportionate number of individuals from these populations experience past trauma, mental health conditions, and SUDs, yet they are vastly underserved in our service area. Through these efforts, PHC will bring services to meet patients where they already access other services that address social determinants of health including food, shelter and housing navigation services, and legal support. Bringing this care outside of our traditional settings improves access, reduces transportation barriers and the impacts of stigma, and creates referral opportunities to increase the number of patients receiving MH and SUD services, including MOUD. In addition, PHC will increase access to MH, SUD, and MOUD services for existing patients at the Creamery Clinic and Alder Clinic through IBH warm handoffs, increased scheduling availability, and decreased wait time between appointments. Through BH expansion efforts PHC plans to increase our MH services patients by 701, our SUD services patients by 52, and MOUD patients by 179.
