FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - ABSTRACT- Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care, Inc. – H80CS00082 Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care, Inc. (CVCPHC) is the major provider of comprehensive health care for low income, uninsured, and under-insured residents in Savannah and Chatham County, GA and achieved PCMH Level III recognition. CVCPHC started providing services in July 1974 in accordance with Section 330 of the Public Health Services Act. Annually, CVCPHC serves in excess of 25,000 users and generates approximately 73,000 patient visits. Over 80% of the users are in the Center’s target area population (147,088 residents), residing in 37 Savannah census tracts which comprise the vast majority of the city’s minority and poverty population. Poverty levels (26% for Savannah and 19% Chatham County) reach up to 55% for residents in 6 of the census tracts served by CVCPHC. In addition, CVCPHC’s primary service area is identified as having one of the highest rates of substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, STDs, teenage pregnancy, unmet mental health services and chronic disease (especially childhood obesity diagnosis) in Chatham County (339,000 residents) and surrounding counties of Bryan and Effingham. Purpose: The purpose of this request is to (1) increase and expand access to behavioral health services for individuals with mental disorders and (2) provide services for those with substance use disorders, including treatment for MOUD. Currently, there is a lack of behavioral health providers in our target population that serves the underserved population and with the recent down-sizing of the local behavioral health providers (mental health and substance abuse) there are numerous residents with unmet behavioral health services. Approximately, 40% percent of CVCPHC patients have been diagnosed with a major depressive episode of which the majority of referrals have access barriers due to the lack of providers and a fully integrated referral system of care to meet these BH needs. CVCPHC provides high quality, patient-centered health care for our patient’s medical, dental and mental health while addressing the social determinants/drivers of health. BH services are in demand for CVCPHC patients and surrounding area that consist of high-risk population and the majority of individuals are minorities (61% Black/African American) who are either uninsured or underinsured (38%), Medicaid (30%), Medicare (8%), experiencing poverty (94% whose income fall below poverty guidelines) and/or facing housing instability (3%). Project Specific Activities: The project will include: 1. Strengthen the systems within CVCPHC and with our local behavioral partners to address the current challenges related to fragmented systems of patients accessing BH services. Utilizing a system of co-located and integrated behavioral health (IBH) models to meet the needs of patients. 2. Develop outreach teams, focus groups with patients and provide an increase access to address the unfulfilled needs, barriers and perceptions of BH services. 3. Increase access to mental health services via mobile units to patients in Chatham, Bryan (rural community) and Effingham (rural area) Counties, in Georgia, that are experiencing transportation challenges. 4. Augment in-person and virtual support services (individual and group sessions) for our Women’s Center patients experiencing postpartum depression and complementing the wrap-around services for patients. 5. Recruitment initiatives focused to increase diversity and address linguistic barriers utilizing embedded text to speech software for those with low literacy and language barriers. 6. Strengthen collaboration/referrals with community partners who provide intensive mental health and SUD treatment and wrap-around services. Desired Outcomes: The beneficiaries of this project will be the residents of Bryan, Chatham, and Effingham counties in Georgia. Increased access to integrated behavioral health services will improve the emotional well-being of patients and re
