Community Health Network Foundation awarded nearly $10 million in grants to support mental health, substance use disorder

Grants from SAMHSA and Hancock County aim to help meet critical need for behavioral health services

Indianapolis - Community Health Network Foundation has been awarded two Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) grants totaling $7,413,031 to expand services and launch Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) in Indianapolis and Kokomo. The clinics will provide these communities with an all-inclusive range of substance use and mental health disorder services, especially those individuals with the most complex needs.

Over four years, funding will be utilized to empower Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health to implement comprehensive programs to reduce behavioral healthcare disparities and improve socially determined health needs. The full array of programming will start to become available to residents of Central Indiana by January 1, 2023.

This federal grant funding will support planning, development, and implementation efforts to achieve four goals:

• Expand accessible, comprehensive behavioral healthcare programs to meet all CCBHC criteria, to include launching Integrated Dual Diagnosis Treatment, formation of a Patient Advisory Board and training of current employees and new hires.
• Implement increased care efficacy through integrated care collaboration, coordination, and engagement, with objectives covering client access to primary care services, multi-disciplinary team support for clients, and services for current and past members of the armed forces.
• Increase access to behavioral health services by meeting clients’ needs in the least restrictive environment, resulting in targeted outreach support, reduction of state hospital admissions, and increase in clients receiving outpatient services.
• Track key disparities, health indicators, and referrals to primary care providers, leading to reduction of behavioral healthcare disparities, and improved socially determined health needs.

In addition, Community Health Network Foundation has received a $2,250,000 Healthy Community Collaborative Grant from Hancock County, Indiana, to create a new Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health mobile response team for residents of the county, regardless of their patient status with Community Health Network.

The grant, part of the American Rescue Plan Act funds that Hancock County received for mental health and substance use disorder issues caused or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, will allow the multi-disciplinary mobile response team to respond to referrals from law enforcement, EMS, and other stakeholders to de-escalate immediate challenges and provide resource coordination, coping skills, and improved access to behavioral health treatment, which will include behavioral health intake and medication management opportunities. The mobile response team will consist of seven staff members including a supervisor, certified peer recovery specialist, case manager, therapist and psychiatric/addiction nurse practitioner for medication management. The hiring process has begun, and the team aims to be fully up and running by January 2023.

George Hurd, Community Health Network’s Vice President of Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health product line, said these three grants will help to transform the way Behavioral Health Services are received by all individuals and allow Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health to further expand and offer a more comprehensive array of services for Central Indiana.

“Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health provides the largest behavioral health continuum of care in the state of Indiana and these grants will add mobile crisis response that stabilizes mental health and substance use crises in the community where the person lives,” said Hurd. “Further, the grants will assist in providing rapid access into comprehensive treatment that integrates mental, physical and social health with the ultimate goal of reducing healthcare disparities. Our team is ready to expand upon our long history, and strong infrastructure, to bring high quality, accessible mental health and substance use disorder treatment to Central Indiana. We look forward to the years ahead and how these grants will positively impact our partnerships in the local communities and expand services for our clients.”

Hancock County Commissioner Marc Huber looks forward to the benefits the mobile response team will bring to residents.

“The mobile response team will be a great asset to Hancock County,” said Huber. “It will give individuals with mental health and addiction issues the opportunity to get the immediate assistance they need and gives the county’s first responders another option to help individuals instead of taking them to jail. This should help the county’s recidivism rate and reduce the number of individuals with mental health and addiction issues ending up in the judicial system. Then the continued guidance and care from the navigators should help guarantee better future success rates. These programs have been lobbied for and worked on for many years. Thank you to everyone that has worked on and supported this project and will continue to see it through with the day-to-day operations. This is a huge win for Hancock County.”

About Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health
Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health’s new name furthers the integration between Fairbanks, one of the oldest and largest addiction treatment providers in the state, with Community Health Network’s Behavioral Health program. The new entity, Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health, provides both a full continuum of substance-use treatment programs and comprehensive behavioral health services. In addition, the facility previously known as Fairbanks Hospital, located on the campus of Community North, is now Community Fairbanks Recovery Center.

Contacts

Bobbie Brooks, Indianapolis Region Communications Manager
317-432-3490
bbrooks@eCommunity.com

George Mast, Director of Business Development, Community Howard Regional Health
765-776-8289
gmast@eCommunity.com