Local clinic to become Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic
Nothern Pines Mental Health Center is one of six clinics are working to be Minnesota’s first Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, a new model that improves and integrates care for people with mental illness and substance use disorder, through grants recently announced by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS).
“Finding the care you need for a mental illness or substance use disorder can be difficult,” said Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper. “Typically, a person with a mental illness will need to contact several different agencies to obtain various services, and rarely can someone obtain both mental health and substance use disorder treatment through the same agency.”
Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics are designed to change that. By offering a high level of coordination between primary care providers, chemical health providers, social services agencies, counties, tribes, veterans’ programs and other key partners, the clinics are expected serve as a “one-stop-shop” and help people before they face a crisis. As a result, families will be more likely to avoid the emergency room and less likely to involve law enforcement.
More than $425,000 in grants will support the planning and development of this innovative delivery model. Six clinics will now start planning to be eligible to become a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic:
o Northern Pines Mental Health Center in the northcentral part of the state
o Northwestern Mental Health Center serving seven northwest counties
o Wilder Children and Family Services in the Twin Cities metro area
o People Incorporated in the Twin Cities metro area
o Ramsey County Mental Health Center in the Twin Cities metro area
o Zumbro Valley Mental Health Center in Olmsted and Fillmore counties in the southeast
Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics are a new demonstration program from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Minnesota is one of 24 states receiving funding for planning. Minnesota has until October 2016 to complete the planning process and certify at least two clinics (one urban and one rural) as eligible to become Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics.
In January 2017 the federal government will select approximately eight demonstration states to begin providing services in July 2017.
Gov. Mark Dayton and the 2016 Legislature showed their support for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics by investing $8.6 million over the next three years to develop and pay for services.
“As we roll out more and more services we move closer and closer to filling the gaps in our state’s continuum of care,” Piper said. “We are working hard to make sure people don’t receive inappropriate and expensive care, but instead get the right services at the right time.”
