FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - H80CS00398 Detroit Community Health Connection, Inc. (DCHC) is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) serving the Detroit, Michigan area of Wayne County through seven locations. In 2023, DCHC’s patient panel reflected that: • 96.86% were at or below 100% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines • 38.10% were children under the age of 18 • 65.75% were Medicaid/CHIP patients • 93.05% were a racial and/or ethnic minority According to the 2022 Uniform Data System (UDS) data for Michigan, only 10.09% of all FQHC services were mental health and 1.25% were substance use disorder (SUD) services. Additionally, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps’ 2021 data reports that residents of Wayne County had an average of 5.7 poor mental health days in the past 30 days, 0.9 days higher than the national average, and that 18% of residents were in frequent mental distress. To better serve current patients and the community, DCHC recognizes the need for increased behavioral healthcare in the area. DCHC is proposing to create an internal behavioral healthcare program with the help of the Behavioral Health Service Expansion funding in order to provide accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate behavioral healthcare to patients of the organization. In 2023, 2.71% of all DCHC’s patients received mental health services. In order to provide this service, DCHC partnered with a behavioral healthcare provider that was co-located and offered easy access to patients. DCHC has decided that to reach the maximum number of patients possible with a program that is launching, DCHC will continue to utilize this partnership with co-location as well as hiring behavioral health staff to offer the internal behavioral healthcare program to patients at other DCHC locations. To begin the internal program, DCHC is proposing to hire 0.5 FTE MAT Certified Physician, 1.0 FTE MAT Certified Advanced Practice Provider, 2 FTE licensed social workers, 1 FTE Case Manager, 1 FTE Community Health Worker and 1 FTE behavioral health nurse to oversee the program and all clinical operations. The behavioral health staff will rotate through five of DCHC’s in-scope locations. The addition of the behavioral health staff will allow DCHC to serve many current patients through behavioral healthcare services. The provision of services through FQHCs, including behavioral healthcare, helps to eliminate barriers patients may otherwise face. By having DCHC’s behavioral health staff rotate through offices, DCHC is bringing care to the patients where they are already being served. DCHC will ensure that current primary care providers, OB/Gyn providers, and pediatric providers are aware of the internal behavioral healthcare program and the protocol to coordinate care for patients who require services through internal referrals. DCHC did not provide SUD services during 2023 but is proposing to review and ensure staff are properly trained on the administration of the current SUD screening tool. Patients who are found to need SUD services, including those found to require MOUD, will receive an internal referral to behavioral health staff. These referrals will be tracked and followed-up on by the case manager to ensure that patients are keeping their appointments and do not face barriers to receiving care from the partner organization. Through the addition of an on staff behavioral healthcare team and an internal referral protocol, review and proper training of the SUD tool and internal referrals for services, DCHC will be able to meet the objectives of the Behavioral Health Service Expansion program.
