FY 2024 Behavioral Health Service Expansion - Address: 601 Wall St, Valparaiso, IN 46383 Project Director: Matthew Burden, PhD Contact Number: 219.476.4501; Fax: 219.476.4505 Email: mburden@porterstarke.org Website: www.marramhealth.org HRSA Funding Requested: $600,000 (BHSE, HRSA-24-078) Health Center Program Award Number: H80CS29005-10-00 Description of the Proposed Project: Porter-Starke Services DBA Marram Health Center proposes to increase the number of patients receiving mental health services and increase the number of patients receiving substance use disorder (SUD) services, including patients receiving treatment with MOUD. Marram will achieve these increases through: increased staffing, targeted trainings, improved coordination of internal and external referrals, and increased marketing and outreach opportunities. Marram currently has sites in Gary, Hebron, and Portage, IN; the Portage site particularly serves those with mental health needs already due to community mental health center co-location. Marram’s mission is to provide quality health, dental, and behavioral health care to underserved communities. Needs to be Addressed: Marram’s service area and patients include populations which experience higher rates of mental health conditions and SUDs, as well as barriers to sustainably accessing appropriate treatment. The service area includes rural populations, racial and ethnic minorities, people who are uninsured, and people experiencing homelessness (Marram gives special focus to homeless populations with HCH funding). Identified health issues for Marram’s service area include chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, overweight/obesity, and hypertension, as well as mental disorders. Successful treatment of these conditions is made more difficult by challenges in obtaining housing, nutritious foods, sufficient income to meet basic needs, and consistent transportation. Treatment that functions best in person, such as certain SUD treatments, can be harder to facilitate successfully given these barriers. Proposed Services: Marram has always provided mental health and substance use treatment, but the needs for these types of treatment are outpacing the current staffing structure. This project will increase behavioral health consultant and therapy services for mental health and SUD, as well as increase psychiatric nurse practitioner services for mental health and SUD, including MOUD. To support these, a coordinator will be hired to assist with trainings, supervision, effective process changes, and referral coordination both internally and externally. These referrals will include close collaboration with local Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) and Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs); Porter-Starke Services is also a CCBHC which operates two OTP locations, contributing internal expertise and the ability to quickly scale up mental health and SUD services with timely access to more specialized service provision. Marram also has established Memoranda of Understanding with local resources, including other FQHCs, CCBHCs, crisis centers, OTPs, community services, homeless shelters, and others, to help address social risk factors and underlying needs our patients have. Population Groups to be Served: The focus of Marram Health Center is care of patients who have not had access to consistent quality health care with an additional focus on individuals who are homeless. Marram will continue serving the current patient population, which is majority female, majority Black/African-American, majority with income under 200% of the Federal Poverty Guideline, and majority with Medicaid as their primary insurance. With this grant request, Marram expects to serve people experiencing mental health conditions and SUDs.
