Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - Inland Behavioral and Health Services, Inc. (IBHS) is a non-profit community clinic licensed by the State of California and certified as a Medi-Cal/Medicaid provider. IBHS opened in 1976 as a substance abuse treatment center, and in the 1990s primary care services were added. Mental health services were added in the late 1990s, and IBHS became a federally-funded CHC in 2002. IBHS serves medically underserved and uninsured patients in the City of San Bernardino, and the City of Banning in neighboring Riverside County, CA. Both areas are part of Southern California’s vast Inland Empire. In 2023, IBHS served 6,351 total unduplicated patients. Reflecting the cultural diversity of the Inland Empire, patients were approximately 53.9% Hispanic/Latinx, 24.0% Black/African American, 12.1% White, 2.8% Asian/Pacific Islander, 1.7% American Indian/Alaska Native, 1.5% More than One Race, and the remainder Other/Did Not Report. Patients experience significant barriers to health care: About 13% of patients were best served in a language other than English, and 10.4% of patients (mostly adults) lacked health insurance. All (100%) of patients with confirmed income were at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level; 144 patients were unhoused. It is this patient population that will be served by the project. The behavioral health needs in IBHS’s service areas are acute. For example, in San Bernardino County, we know that 20.1% of teens and adults “likely has had serious psychological distress during past year” compared to just 17.4% across the state of California (CHIS, 2022). In Riverside County, the county’s health system (Riverside University Health System) reported that in 2021, 15.1% of adults stated their mental health was not good 14 or more days in the past month. Moreover, per the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard, in 2022, mortality from opioid overdose in both counties was on the rise at a rate far exceeding the state as a whole. Although IBHS has long offered behavioral health services, we see hundreds more patients with these conditions than we have capacity to treat. County systems are also overwhelmed by demand, and social determinants of health such as food insecurity, transportation and legal/immigration issues are also barriers to treatment. IBHS now seeks to expand both its service offerings and its impact (including the number of patients who can be provided mental health and substance abuse treatment). With BHSE funding, IBHS will add 2.0 FTE certified substance use counselors, 2.0 FTE Peer Support Specialists, and provider training and increased nursing, pharmacy FTE to implement MOUD. We will increase contractual mental health therapy capacity, and additionally, in Year 1, some funding will be used for equipment purchases to secure BHSE investments. By calendar year 2025, IBHS will significantly increase the number of patients receiving mental health and SUD services from a 2023 UDS baseline of 204 and 246, respectively. We will also increase the number patients receiving treatment with MOUD from a baseline of zero.
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).