FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - Project Abstract Health Center Program Grant Number: H80CS33663 Summary of how your proposed project will: • Increase the number of patients receiving mental health services, and • Increase the number of patients receiving SUD services, including patients receiving treatment with MOUD. Mountaineer Community Health Center (MCHC), a pillar of the Paw Paw community for over 25 years, is positioned to expand behavioral health care and substance use treatment to individuals throughout Morgan and Hampshire Counties. Many MCHC staff members are either community residents or have migrated to the community from areas throughout West Virginia; therefore, they are knowledgeable about the socio-economic disparities plaguing the residents of this rural area. The core staff is keenly aware of lingering fear and/or discouragement in engaging in the continuum of care due to the complexities of the healthcare system, which correlates to limited education and literacy in healthcare for its patients. MCHC will utilize their experience in evolving to meet the needs of the community they serve to further progress mental and behavioral health care and substance use disorder treatment within their service area. MCHC, an inclusive FQHC, will be increasing behavioral health care, including adding substance use disorder treatment to its offered services. Not unlike all of West Virginia, rural Morgan and Hampshire counties have been significantly impacted by the opioid crisis. MCHC will offer Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) as a component of its treatment of substance use disorder. MCHC, in its commitment to the behavioral health needs of the community, will hire additional staff to meet identified community needs. MCHC will hire a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) to evaluate, treat, and manage patients’ behavioral health needs. This PMHNP will be supported by staff members, including a family nurse practitioner (FNP), an RN care coordinator, a therapist, and a medical assistant. The FNP will assist the PMHNP in medication management for patients receiving MOUD care. The RN Care Coordinator and the Therapist will provide wrap-around services to ensure patients have the support they need to address their unique psychosocial, socio-economic, and geographical challenges in receiving care. The proposed Community Health Worker and Van Driver will also link residents with additional care to assist with social determinants of health (SDoHs) such as housing, food insecurity, social isolation, and lack of transportation, especially when any services needed beyond MCHC are over the mountain and virtually unattainable to the patient population. Through its expansion of services, MCHC expects to increase the number of patients receiving mental and behavioral health care. MCHC predicts just over an 8% increase in patients admitted to MCHC in this expansion of services, resulting in approximately 500 behavioral health patients and 200 substance use disorder treatment patients annually. This would include 75 patients for MOUD. MCHC will also offer outreach services to youth in the Paw Paw Community. Working with school administration, leaders, and classroom teachers, MCHC will accept referrals for school-aged children with behavioral health needs. The completion of services will be coordinated with the schools and will be individualized to meet the needs of not only the students but also their families. MCHC believes that this expansion of behavioral health care and substance use disorder treatment services will have a positive impact on the Paw Paw community. MCHC will provide these services in an environment that allows for comprehensive care for all, striving to decrease stigma and discrimination around behavioral health care.
