Tuesday, April 29, 2025
4/29/2025
Quality Improvement Fund - Justice Involved - Funding Request: $1,000,000 Service Area – The Grace Health service area includes six counties in rural, southeastern Kentucky: Bell County, Clay County , Knox County, Leslie County, Laurel County, and Whitley County. All three counties are medical, dental, and mental health HPSAs and full county MUAs. For this project, Grace Health is partnering with three carceral authorities in the service area: Clay County Detention Center, Leslie County Detention Center, and Knox County Detention Center. All three are small, local jails located in rural areas. Lack of transportation and care coordination at the time of release are key barriers to access. Need: Rural county jails in Kentucky have struggled to financially support overcrowding due to the mass housing of state inmates in local custody and the growing medical, dental, and behavioral/mental health needs of justice-involved individuals, including substance and alcohol abuse. Grace Health will be supplementing the medical and dental services partnering jails are required to provide by providing targeted case management and care coordination services to inmates at detention centers that currently have no transitional services or supports in place. Understaffing and limited budgets minimize the county jail’s ability to provide adequate transitional resources to individuals being released. Health professional shortages compound the needs across the service area. In addition to the complex physical health needs of these communities, there is an increasing demand for mental health services, particularly related to Substance Use Disorder (SUD), Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Lack of access to resources and employment, combined with poor physical health and the social stigma around incarceration leads to poor mental health status and high rates of substance use in the service area. Fragmented services and barriers such as transportation prevent individuals from entering care or accessing services effectively. Objectives and Outcomes Two primary goals will drive the project toward improved outcomes for justice involved individuals: Goal 1: Increase access to medical, dental, and behavioral health services by increasing care navigation for 250 persons annually transitioning from incarceration back into the community at three carceral facilities in southeast Kentucky from December 1, 2024-November 30, 2026. Goal 2: Leverage community partnerships to address health related social needs and recovery support services with at least three community organizations over the two-year project period.Objective 1A: Increase clinical providers and4 behavioral health care staff to meet mental health and substance use treatment needs. Objective 2: Increase access to mental heath and substance use disorder services by adding care coordination and navigation services for the JI-R population. Objective 3 -Leverage community partnerships to address health related social needs by using case management services, Objective 4: inform the evidence base to support transition to re-entry for justice involved individuals health and substance abuse treatment staff, oral health staff and care coordination/ navigation staff, we expect to see increased access to services for this focus population. We will leverage existing resources through community partnership and avoid duplication of services. Supporting these transitions for the justice involved population is key to successful re-entry. Staff will be trained to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care to the JI-R population to help reduce stigma and increase patient-centered care standards for this group.
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).