Monday, April 28, 2025
4/28/2025
FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - Central Florida Family Health Center, Inc. (CFFHC), has been providing medical services to low-income, uninsured, and underinsured populations of Central Florida since 1977. Organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have reported that individuals with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to suffer from behavioral health issues such as stress, depression, and anxiety. The 2022 Community Health Needs Assessments for both Orange and Seminole counties identified enhancement of mental health (including Substance Use Disorder) outreach and treatment as one of the top five health needs. Limited behavioral health resources resulting from the opioid epidemic and a shortage of mental health professionals, have been further strained by the rapid growth in Central Florida’s population which started in 2020. The number of behavioral health patients seen by CFFHC more than doubled between 2020 and 2021 and increased thirty-one percent between 2021 and 2022. According to the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment for Central Florida, fatal overdoses are rising at an unprecedented rate in the state of Florida, and Central Florida is rising even faster than the statewide average. There were 616 overdose deaths in the greater Central Florida region between March of 2020 to March of 2021, a 28% increase year-over-year from March of 2019 to March of 2020. This equates to fifty-one overdose deaths a month. Increasing personnel is vital to expanding both behavioral health services and medication assisted therapy (MAT) services. CFFHC will hire a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and a licensed clinical social worker or licensed mental health counselor who will provide direct services to patients. CFFHC will also hire a medical assistant to support the behavioral health team and MAT providers. CFFHC began offering MAT in April of 2023, and five of its medical providers are trained to prescribe it. These providers are available at three of its nine health center locations in Orange and Seminole County. This project will double the number of locations where CFFHC offers MAT services; providing MAT at its six locations that have onsite pharmacy access. Provider incentives, in the form of a modest financial stipend, will be offered to increase the number of its providers that become trained in MAT and provide the services to patients. In addition to increasing personnel, CFFHC will increase the group therapy it offers. CFFHC began conducting weekly MAT group therapy sessions in February 2024. CFFHC will begin group therapy sessions for other needs demonstrated by patients, such as maternal mental health, youth, and family counselling. This project will build upon the partnerships and referral systems that CFFHC has established with local hospital systems, inpatient facilities, city and county government agencies, shelters, and other community partners. The target population more often faces challenges to accessing needed care. It is critical to identify social determinants of health that pose a barrier for these patients and help address them. Two of the top identified barriers to care identified by CFFHC patients are financial cost and lack of transportation. The project proposes to address both through provision of transportation assistance to and from patients’ behavioral health and MAT-treatment appointments, as well as provision of financial assistance for MAT medication to patients unable to afford it. This project will expand access to much needed behavioral health and MAT services, addressing the current level of need in our communities by increasing accessible resources, reducing structural barriers, and addressing social determinants. These efforts will reduce the likelihood that individuals will be admitted or readmitted to a hospital facility related to an overdose.
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).