FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - Morton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. 1334 North Lansing Ave., Tulsa, OK 74106-5907 Project Director: M. Susan Savage Phone: (918) 295-9392; Fax: (918) 295-6106 Email: ssavage@mortonhealth.com http://mortonhealth.org Morton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. (Morton), is a private, not-for-profit, 501-c-3 Federally Qualified Health Center based in Tulsa, OK. Morton has its roots in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre where it evolved from a makeshift hospital in the aftermath of that tragedy into solely ambulatory care in 1968. Morton was designated as a Federally Qualified Health Center in 1972. Its mission through history has remained one of service dedicated to underserved populations, especially in the historically African American northern sector of Tulsa. Morton’s service area includes urban and rural communities throughout a network of six service delivery sites, including its main location in the northern sector of Tulsa; the Midtown Homeless Health Center embedded in Tulsa’s Salvation Army; a health center embedded with the Tulsa Housing Authority in west Tulsa; an integrated location at Family and Children’s Services -among Oklahoma’s largest providers of behavioral health services; a community health center in east Tulsa, and a rural health center in Nowata. Morton provides comprehensive primary care and wrap-around support services including lifespan primary care, dental, optometry, behavioral health services including psychiatry, substance use disorder, pharmacy, and homeless health care services. Morton seeks to expand behavioral health and substance use disorder (SUD) services through the Behavioral Health Service Expansion (BHSE) program to increase the number of patients receiving behavioral health and SUD services. Statewide, the need for increased behavioral health and SUD services is prevalent, as SAMHSA’s national survey of drug use and health reveal that Oklahoma ranks 45th for serious mental illness in the past year; and 45th for adults needing but not receiving treatment for illicit drug use in the past year. The primary focus of the BHSE project includes enhancing and expanding services to Morton’s service area populations with the greatest unmet needs: the rural population of Northeast Oklahoma and the unhoused population in the City of Tulsa. Morton’s health center in Nowata, OK, serves a rural catchment area of Nowata and surrounding counties. Nowata County is designated as a HPSA for primary care, dental health, and mental health, with an estimated need of 6.05 FTE behavioral health practitioners to achieve the target ratio. Nowata County has an estimated one behavioral health provider to every 400 residents, compared to the state rate of 230:1. Tulsa continues to experience a rise in the population of unhoused individuals. In the most recent point-in-time count for Tulsa, the leading causes of homelessness were affordable housing, loss of income, and mental health. Morton’s proposed project includes enhancing services to ensure complete wrap-around care utilizing primary care embedded with behavioral health and SUD services, partnerships with area Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics employing mutual referrals, and providing care coordination and linkage to housing, transportation, and other health-related social needs. Patients seeking and accessing behavioral health and SUD services often face stigma and discrimination, factors which may be amplified among rural and unhoused populations. The BHSE project will involve training providers and staff to ensure the approach to behavioral health and SUD patient care is informed by cultural sensitivity and awareness of prominent social risk factors. Funding from the BHSE program will support Morton’s dedication to providing comprehensive care to underserved populations, along with the continuing goal to enhance and improve services to meet the changing needs of the diverse service area.
