Alluvion Health

Community Health Care Center Integrated Behavioral Health Program Development Project

The goal of this project was to strengthen the existing integration of primary care and behavioral health services within the Cascade County Community Care Center. To achieve this goal, the health center hired a psychiatric nurse practitioner to join their team of medical providers, licensed clinical social workers, and care managers to help move their program from partial to full behavioral health integration. The National Council for Behavioral Health provided technical assistance, training, and learning communities for this project. Key project outcomes included: strengthening the continuum of care with Benefis Hospital by ensuring that patients discharged from the hospital’s behavioral health unit would receive appropriate and timely care from the health center’s behavioral health team; adjusting behavioral health therapist schedules to ensure availability for “warm handoffs” and consults with primary care providers; coordinating with a dedicated biller/coder to ensure sustainable third-party billing and collections. Through this grant, the health center determined that the addition of the psychiatric nurse practitioner provided a more comprehensive model of care for the center and that the position would be sustainable moving forward through third-party billing.

Grant Amount

$35,000

Term

12 month

2016

Beaverhead County Public Health

Integrating Behavioral and Physical Health in Rural Southwest Montana

For this project, Beaverhead County’s local advisory council on mental health oversaw a community-wide coalition which leads work plan development and implementation of integrated behavioral health in their county. Other coalition accomplishments include: establishing criminal justice, crisis response, ACE (project materials: ACE Task Force Mission and Goals, ACE Task Force Pamphlet), universal screening, and mental health task forces; implementing universal screenings for depression at the University of Montana-Western Student Health Center; and successfully hosting a two-day behavioral health summit which was facilitated by the National Council for Behavioral Health and will continue as an annual event. 

Grant Amount

$22,100

Term

18 months

2015

Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana

Advocacy for Behavioral Health Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery

The Behavioral Health Alliance of Montana (BHAM) is a newly formed consortium of substance use and mental health providers serving adults and children statewide. BHAM is the culmination of two years of intensive discussions led and facilitated by MHCF. The purpose of BHAM is to strengthen the behavioral health prevention and treatment system in Montana by coordinating the efforts of providers, and effectively guiding state policy, implementing new initiatives, and promoting and supporting the adoption of best practices. Grant funds will be used to build the organizations operational and programmatic base with the initial focus on strategic planning; the grant will also allow BHAM to broaden outreach efforts, cultivate membership, and secure ongoing financial, leadership and management resources.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

36 months

2017

Billings Clinic

Establishing a Montana Psychiatric Residency Training Track

The goal of this planning grant was to create a blueprint for the establishment of a psychiatric residency training track at Billings Clinic. The University of Washington agreed to be the academic partner in the residency program’s design and launch. As part of the planning process, the project disseminated a survey that estimated costs of Montana’s psychiatry shortage at $3 million annually, which helped reinforce the need for psychiatric residency in the state. The project resulted in the Montana State Legislature allocating an increase of $400,000 annually to graduate medical education funding in the Office of the Commission of Higher Education’s budget. These funds will be crucial for the implementation of the psychiatric residency training track, will ensure the stability of Montana’s primary care and psychiatric physician workforce, and will enhance residency training overall in the state. With the inclusion of federal match dollars, this MHCF investment resulted in an increase of approximately $4.3 million annually for Montana’s residencies.

Grant Amount

$50,000

Term

24 month

2015

Bozeman Health Foundation

Behavioral Health Symposium, Work Groups, and Summit

For this project, Bozeman Health partnered with leaders from the Gallatin City-County Health Department, the mental health Local Advisory Committee, Gallatin Mental Health Center, United Way of Gallatin County, and MSU’s Student Health Services to host a behavioral health planning symposium in the fall of 2017, working groups through the winter, and a behavioral health summit in the spring of 2018. The project’s goal was to bring together community partners to re-imagine a behavioral health vision and develop a behavioral health strategy for Bozeman Health. Elevating Behavioral Health (EBH) successfully brought a broad cross-section of community leaders together to understand challenges, identify early and long-term solutions and to form new and strengthened partnerships focused on a common behavioral health vision. The EBH steering committee continues to meet, to advance early solutions, and to rally collaborative efforts toward a now agreed upon set of key community outcomes in improving behavioral health. The effort also enabled Bozeman Health to identify how and where it can best support behavioral health throughout its service region. This new clarity informed a Bozeman Health board endorsed Behavioral Health Care System plan and a budget that passed in November 2018.

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2017

Center for Mental Health

Integrating Medical Care Into A Mental Health Facility

This planning grant supported early work to integrate physical and behavioral health services in Lewis and Clark County’s mental health center, crisis center, and community health center. The applicant and partners participated in technical assistance, webinars, and learning communities led by the National Council for Behavioral Health. The project strengthened partnerships and provided clarity and direction for how each partner could work toward more effectively integrated services in the future. The project did not fully realize its aim of integrating services, however, program partners were successful in utilizing a shared referral software system.

Grant Amount

$10,150

Term

24 month

2015

Center for Restorative Youth Justice

Reducing School-Based Arrests for Youth with Behavioral Health Needs

In partnership with Kalispell Public Schools, the Center for Restorative Youth Justice (CRYJ) worked to develop and implement an alternative model for out of school suspensions based on a trauma-informed and restorative approach. The approach focuses on constructive, supportive ways to addressing discipline, with the goal of limiting the transfer and over-representation of youth with school-based non-violent offenses and behavioral health needs in the juvenile justice system. The data reported that 32 youth were referred to the program resulting in 160 less days of off-campus suspension, increased school engagement and less recidivism suggests that this approach to addressing school discipline improves student outcomes and creates opportunities for increased connection for students who are at-risk of entering the juvenile justice system. The project successfully launched an alternative to off-campus suspension and justice system referrals and engaged in long-term planning and technical support for the school board and committees. This project was pivotal in creating a foundation for future development and revisions to disciplinary guidelines across the Kalispell Public School District. The school district has committed their own funds to training teachers and administrators in the use of restorative justice and restorative practices as alternatives to sanctions-based discipline before the upcoming school year and have committed to a full revision of disciplinary guidelines.

Grant Amount

$60,000

Term

24 month

2017

Child Bridge, Inc.

Finding a Way Home: Improving Behavioral Health in Foster Children by Achieving Permanency

Through this project, Child Bridge worked to improve placement outcomes for children who have experienced trauma and require well-equipped families for permanency placements. Through education and mentoring, Child Bridge educated families on types of common behaviors and helped them build support networks. Mentoring and support was provided to families throughout placement and adoption. Child Bridge was able to establish permanency arrangements for 16 children, many of whom had spent months or years in state custody and experienced multiple foster care and group home placements. While measuring the exact cost savings the project achieved for the state is difficult, a conservative estimate suggested that this project saved the state more than $500,000 for each child placed. Child Bridge will continue to work with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Department of Child and Family Services and have become a resource for social workers who are trying to identify families for child placement. While Child Bridge has not secured permanent funding for the services they provide, through this project they were able to establish cost saving estimates that provide a basis for negotiations with the state.

Grant Amount

$75,000

2017

Community Health Partners

School Wellness with Community Health Partners and Belgrade School District

Community Health Partners (CHP) will establish the first school-based health center in Belgrade at the Belgrade Middle School and a new partnership with the Belgrade School District. The project will bring a nurse practitioner and a medical assistant from CHP into the school to provide regular, weekly clinic hours in a remodeled classroom space. This opportunity will give students and families access to health care services like vaccinations, sports physicals, concussion management, and other athletic injury follow-ups. Health services, like behavioral health and dental, will be included as specific needs are determined throughout the project. As part of this grant, the school will assess and consider updates to school policies and practices to reduce out-of-school suspensions and truancy and increase student engagement. Funding will be used to employ the new school-based health center staff. The project aims to improve student health outcomes and attendance, decrease disciplinary events, and increase overall school success.

Grant Amount

$50,000

Term

24 month

2019

Daniels County Health Department

Improving Behavorial Health Awareness in Daniels County

This project’s goal was to help the community gain a better understanding of available behavioral health resources and for the Daniels Memorial Health Center to develop a plan to begin integrating behavioral health services into their primary care. The project engaged a diverse coalition of community stakeholders and held several training sessions on the behavioral health resources available in the community and on how to recognize the signs and symptoms of crisis situations. The coalition also developed a resource guide of local behavioral health services which was made available in print and online. The Daniels Memorial Health Center also succeeded in developing a business plan for integrating behavioral health into their primary care services and began routinely screening patients for depression. Health center leadership expressed their commitment to continue working towards integrating behavioral health throughout their health system.

Grant Amount

$35,000

2016

EmpowerMT

Strategic Planning to Expand Youth Development to Rural & Tribal Communities in Montana

EmpowerMT will build youth leadership and promote trauma-informed, culturally relevant after school programs for middle and high school youth. They will do this by evaluating the outcomes of their current programs and completing a strategic planning process for expanding services to better meet the needs of rural and tribal schools in northwestern Montana. EmpowerMT’s current program promotes positive social-emotional learning (SEL) outcomes to support behavioral health in the youth they serve. Funding will be used to contract for program evaluation services and staff time to carry out the evaluation and strategic planning processes. Staff will also identify and evaluate SEL curriculums that have been shown to improve behavioral health outcomes in middle school and high school youth. EmpowerMT currently partners with schools in Missoula, Ronan, and Whitefish and will expand partnerships with schools in Thompson Falls and Hot Springs, as well as other schools in northwestern Montana. They will also work with the University of Montana, the Salish Kootenai Tribal College, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Education Department, and local Indian education for all parent advisory boards. The overall goal of this project is to evaluate and improve EmpowerMT’s SEL programs and services to better serve rural and tribal schools and improve the behavioral health outcomes of youth.

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2019

Flathead City-County Health Department

Developing a Plan to Transform the Behavioral Health System through Mapping

The Flathead City-County Health Department will map the behavioral health system in Flathead County to identify specific treatment needs. As part of this project, a modified sequential intercept mapping (SIM) process will be used with a multidisciplinary team including experts in mental health, substance use disorders, law enforcement, housing, health, social services, and individuals directly impacted by mental health disorders. Grant funds will be used for project staff salaries and consultant fees for the mapping process. Partnerships for this project include Kalispell Regional Healthcare and the Flathead Community Health Center. Additional partners will also be invited to participate in the mapping process, including Sunburst Mental Health, Western Montana Mental Health, and law enforcement. The project’s overall goal is to map the behavioral health system in Flathead County to identify resources within the community, gaps in services, and the development of a community plan for improvement.

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2020

Florence Crittenton Home & Services

Substance Use Treatment for Pregnant and Parenting Women

This project allowed the grantee to plan and implement outpatient substance abuse services for Florence Crittenton’s clientele, and to explore residential treatment options for pregnant and parenting women and their children. Florence Crittenton received licensing as a Level 3.3 Recovery Home for Women and Children ages 18 to 35 and became a state approved provider for outpatient substance use disorder services for families of all ages. They also applied for and received a mental health center license, allowing them to provide services for co-occurring disorders. Finally, they developed a process for documenting and billing for services provided which will ensure the long-term financial viability of these new programs.

Grant Amount

$75,000

2017

Friendship House of Christian Service

Transforming South Billings Youth and Families by Addressing Community Counseling Needs

Friendship House expanded its services and began providing behavioral health counseling to young people in low-income neighborhoods in Billings. With technical assistance from Aune Associates, they recruited a student counselor, hired her once she became licensed, and began billing for her services. With the licensed counselor in place, Friendship House was able to invoice insurance providers and began generating income. Because of the success of the project, Friendship House plans to replicate this process and bring on additional counselors to meet the behavioral health needs of their community.

Grant Amount

$40,000

Term

12 month

2018

Glacier Community Health Center

Dental and Behavioral Health Integration

The Glacier Community Health Center integrated a dental clinic into its already-established integrated behavioral health model. They are now able to provide their patients with bidirectional warm hand-offs among their medical, behavioral health, and dental services. The grant funding helped support the development of screening procedures, staff training, and workflow implementation. Oral health, behavioral health, and medical conditions are now being screened and assessed in each department of the health center. Continuous quality improvement processes are in place to review staff and patient perceptions of the model and patient outcomes moving forward.

Grant Amount

$49,729

Term

12 month

2018

Holy Rosary Healthcare Foundation

Eastern Montana Integrated Behavioral Health Collaborative

This project focused on integrating primary and behavioral health care for patients in eastern Montana. The primary care team at Holy Rosary Healthcare and behavioral health experts from Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center sought to provide seamless integrated behavioral health (IBH) services for patients with a full spectrum of mental health issues, addiction, and primary care medical conditions. Outcomes included: a stronger partnership between Eastern Montana Mental Health Center and Holy Rosary Healthcare, implementation of universal depression screenings for adult patients in primary care practice, and a detailed IBH implementation plan that maps out a model for the new services and addresses specific business operations questions. The partners plan to expand a full IBH model for all primary care physicians and providers (including youth) in the Holy Rosary Healthcare primary care clinic.

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2015

Intermountain Deaconess Children's Services

Services for At-risk Helena Youth in Alternative High Schools

For this project, Intermountain collaborated with an alternative learning school to provide behavioral health services to students. The collaboration resulted in a 63 percent increase in screenings for substance use disorders and an increase in referrals to higher levels of care, substance use disorder assessments, and other community-based support. Unfortunately, the project struggled with the turnover of key staff and did not see as much of a decrease in reported or suspected substance or alcohol use as anticipated. However, the project did strengthen the relationship between the school and Intermountain and laid the foundation for future collaborations.

Grant Amount

$45,000

Term

18 months

2015

Jefferson County Mental Health Local Advisory Council

Support Our Youth Through Positive Parenting

Through this project, the Jefferson County Mental Health Local Advisory Council will partner with the Jefferson County Health Department to deliver positive parenting classes to the residents of Jefferson County. This project stems from the identification of behavioral health as a top health concern in Jefferson County’s community health assessment. To take an upstream approach to improving behavioral health in the county, the health department and school nurse will use the state health department’s online parenting program, Parenting Montana, and a parenting curriculum known as “positive parenting” to encourage parenting practices that support the healthy child development. Grant funds will be used to purchase training materials and support program staff time to deliver the training and to work with community partners to identify good venues for program delivery. Partners involved in this project include the local advisory committee, county health department, local library, school nurse, elementary school, and Head Start. The overarching goal of this project is to establish healthy parenting practices that will support both parents and children and prevent behavioral health issues

Grant Amount

$11,642

Term

12 month

2019

Lewis and Clark County

Mental Health Strategic Plan

This project convened a group of key stakeholders to develop a strategy addressing how people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders encounter and flow through the criminal justice system. The strategy included sequential intercept mapping which has three main components: 1) it reflects how individuals move through the local criminal justice system, 2) it indicates points for intervention or diversion of people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders, and 3) it provides a visual depiction of the ways in which treatment systems interact with the local criminal justice system. Stakeholders also identified priorities for change, developed an action plan, and helped create a new sustainable county department to address restorative justice and court services.

Grant Amount

$20,000

Term

24 month

2015

Lincoln County Health Department

Mental Health Coalition

This project established a community coalition (led by the county health department and including mental health and medical providers, law enforcement, and schools) and the grantee developed a behavioral health strategic plan that assessed behavioral health needs and available services. The coalition became an affiliate of the statewide Elevate Montana Program, which will assist with working toward established care coordination and mental health services for schools. The coalition now has a trained mental health first aid instructor and training, education, and information will occur systematically throughout the community.

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2017

Logan Health

Post-Delivery Support for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Infants and Their Parents

Through this grant, Kalispell Regional Healthcare’s (KRH) neonatal intensive care unit staff worked with Montana hospitals to develop and implement a standardized protocol to screen for and manage drug withdrawal in newborns. The grant resulted in several important accomplishments: 1) The grantee developed an educational video for staff using the Modified Finnegan Scoring Tool to assess infants exposed to opiates in utero. 2) The implementation of a new “incentivized parenting program” that fostered a cultural shift away from blaming mothers for their addiction and toward a sympathetic, supportive attitude that encouraged parents to participate in care of their infants and to engage in education and treatment activities; 3) The NICU improved cooperation with state agencies to support families. An independent evaluation of the program suggested that these accomplishments helped reduce foster care placement of infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). The prevalence of foster care placement for babies with NAS decreased from 75% (N = 12) in 2015 to 11.1% (N = 9) in 2017 (partial). Continuing an earlier trend, the average length of hospital stays for NAS-affected babies went from 23.5 days (average 2014-2015) to 14.9 days (N = 9) in 2017 (partial).

Grant Amount

$50,000

Term

24 month

2015

Montana State University - Department of Health and Human Development

Increasing Mental Health Access in Gallatin County

MSU’s Graduate Counseling Program faculty, Dr. Anna Elliott, and Dr. Rebecca Koltz will partner with the Gallatin City-County Health Department (GCCHD) to develop an integrative system to provide mental health services to low-income Gallatin County residents. First, participants in the GCCHD home visiting program will be offered mental health service access through the Human Development Clinic (HDC), a community mental health agency, affiliated with MSU’s Counseling Program. To attend to logistical barriers that prevent low-income residents from seeking out counseling services, the HDC will offer transportation and child programming on site. The second portion of this collaboration will involve the hiring of post-graduate, pre-licensure counselors who are able to see clients with higher acuity and are insured by Medicaid. In addition to serving a demographic of Gallatin County, who face multiple barriers in trying to receive mental health services, this collaboration will also create an opportunity to train new counselors to work with high-need populations, preparing them to provide quality mental health service to a diverse and challenging array of clients upon graduation.

Grant Amount

$72,270

Term

24 month

2018

Montana State University Foundation

Promotion and delivery of Thrive-Montana

The goal of this project was to establish and strengthen state partnerships for the effective promotion and delivery of Thrive for Montana, an evidence-based, internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy program designed to assist adult Montanans who are experiencing anxiety, depression, and/or suicidal thinking. With the help of partners such as Montana National Alliance for Mental Illness, Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services, and One Montana, Montana State University developed marketing messages to reach vulnerable populations throughout the state. The project distributed more than 10,000 promotional materials, facilitated 12 community meetings and six health care organization presentations, engaged 165 health care providers and community organizations in promotional efforts, and enrolled 790 project participants. Of these 790 enrollees, 99 (12.5%) were referred by a health care provider, an increase from 0 at the beginning of the project. Thrive for Montana has secured funding for the development of a youth version of the program.

Grant Amount

$26,904

Term

12 month

2018

Mountain Home Montana

Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Pregnant and Parenting Teens

This planning project worked to develop a strategy for integrating substance use disorder treatment into Mountain Home Montana’s wrap-around care for pregnant and parenting mothers. Over the course of the project, Mountain Home Montana expanded and deepened partnerships with providers and strengthened their referral network and processes to better serve young families struggling with substance abuse. They successfully provided robust staff training around substance use disorder issues and levels of treatment, clarified referral processes, and hired an in-house therapist who is also a licensed addictions counselor. Mountain Home also obtained a Medicaid youth endorsement, which allows billing for case management and therapeutic services for clients under age 18 and they adopted an evidence-based evaluation tool to measure their program’s successes and challenges. As a direct result of policy shifts for substance use disorder treatment, staff training, and capacity, Mountain Home was able to reduce evictions from their residential program due to substance abuse from 20% to 6%. Beyond these direct results, Mountain Home also leveraged this planning grant into a five-year award from the federal Family and Youth Services Bureau to support residential programs.

Grant Amount

$73,754

2017

North Valley Hospital Foundation

Virtual Access for Behavioral Healthcare Services

This project expanded behavioral health and tele-behavioral health throughout the North Valley Hospitals service area with targeted communities in Eureka, Whitefish, and Columbia Falls. In the Eureka school system, North Valley expanded tele-behavioral health services by putting the technology and services in place. In Columbia Falls and Whitefish, behavioral health services were expanded into the existing school-based health centers through onsite behavioral health staff. The project also resulted strengthening North Valley Hospital’s infrastructure for tele-health throughout the organizations service lines, which will allow for increased behavioral health access in the region moving forward.

Grant Amount

$50,000

Term

24 month

2015

One Health

School-Based Health Center at St. Labre Indian School

For this project, Bighorn Valley Health Center (BVHC) partnered with St. Labre Indian School to start a school-based health center for students, their families, and school staff members. Using a modular building provided by the school, BVHC configured the space to support the provision of medical, dental, and behavioral health services. In 2017, the clinic had over 1,300 visits and more than 70 percent of patients were screened for depression. Patients with positive depression screening results were referred to the care of a behavioral health provider who ensured that they received appropriate support – either directly or through a referral with a partner organization. In addition, this project developed a learning collaborative (consisting of BVHC behavioral health staff and select counselors and coordinators from St. Labre) to better support the school’s staff in their work to foster a trauma-informed approach to school discipline and culture. In the second year of the grant, the collaborative expanded to include staff from the Pretty Eagle School Campus in St. Xavier. While MHCF funding was utilized for the design and implementation of this project, a financial analysis indicates that the project will be entirely self-sustaining at the conclusion of the grant.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2015

Open Aid Alliance

Overdose Prevention and Naloxone Access Project

This project helped Open Aid Alliance build strategic partnerships and create training opportunities for service providers and people who use injection drugs to improve prevention, recognition, and response to opiate overdose. Open Aid Alliance trained nearly 100 people to recognize an overdose and to respond and administer naloxone. The project fell short of their projected goal of training 360 people, however, they added overdose recognition and response to their website. This project also helped Open Aid expand their programming by exploring a substance use disorder treatment provider endorsement. This exploration led to increased partnerships in the community, strengthened business operations, and ultimately improved the continuum of substance use disorder care in Missoula County. The most profound and meaningful outcome of the project was the relationship building, strengthening partnerships, and positive legislative work to increase access and availability of naloxone throughout Montana.

Grant Amount

$15,000

Term

18 months

2015

Open Aid Alliance

Licensed Chemical Dependency Treatment Center

This project helped Open Aid Alliance apply for and receive licensure to become a state-approved substance use disorder treatment center. This new licensure will allow the organization to expand their services and create a harm reduction treatment center for individuals who experience stigma as they seek to improve their health; including people living with HIV, people using injection drugs, and people who have been homeless and/or incarcerated. The grantee successfully completed a consulting process, developed feasibility and business plans, and created policies and procedures needed to implement sustainable substance use disorder services. This expansion not only successfully strengthened partnerships in the community but also provided immediate access to treatment for clients and created a new diverse revenue stream for the organization.

Grant Amount

$8,780

Term

12 month

2016

Providence Montana Health Foundation

The Wrapped in Hope Project

The Wrapped in Hope Project was a collaboration between Providence Montana Health Foundation and Saint Joseph Hospital, with strong support from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal government, to implement a multi-disciplinary approach to drug use during pregnancy through both clinical and home-based services. Both hospitals implemented collaborative, team-based approaches that provide holistic, respectful, family-centered care. They also hired licensed clinical social workers with expertise in addictions to provide care and coordinate supportive services for pregnant women struggling with addiction. A second component of the program focused on community outreach encouraging women to seek care in early pregnancy and informing them of available supportive services. This project achieved significant accomplishments both on the programmatic and community change level, including: 1) Women struggling with substance abuse while pregnant can now go to any health care provider in the Mission Valley and receive non-judgmental, quality health care, recovery support, and referrals. 2) Because of the project’s partnership efforts, local health care professionals have an increased knowledge and awareness about neonatal abstinence syndrome, the importance of working with Child Protective Services, motivational interviewing, pain and opioids, and other relevant topics impacting pregnancy and addiction. 3) This project has created and sustained a model of community collaboration for addressing the public health crisis of women and their babies impacted by substance abuse during pregnancy.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2015

RiverStone Health

Integrated Clinical Pharmacy Services Best Practices

This project focused on supporting clinical pharmacist and primary care integration to improve health outcomes. Important achievements included working with DPHHS to develop administrative rules for Medicaid reimbursement for clinical pharmacist practitioners. The grantee will continue to work on establishing standard outcomes measures across the state that will be used to demonstrate the value of clinical pharmacy services. Ongoing planning and educational sessions will also occur to assist pharmacists who are interested in establishing clinical pharmacy services in a physician practice.

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2016

Sidney Health Center

Bakken Behavioral Health Project

The project enhanced integration of behavioral health into Sydney’s rural health clinic. The National Council for Behavioral Health provided technical assistance and training for the project. The project developed universal depression screening and referral procedures, provided support for the licensed clinical social worker working within the clinic to become credentialed, and ultimately enabled the clinic to implement a more sustainable business model by establishing reimbursable services. By the end of the grant, the project was functioning in a sustainable model where revenues exceeded expenses.

Grant Amount

$20,414

2015

St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation

Comprehensive Prenatal Care with Integrated Substance Abuse Treatment for American Indian Women

This planning grant resulted in a collaboration between the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and Saint Vincent Healthcare to establish a collaborative program to provide and coordinate care for pregnant women with substance use disorders. This tribally-led pilot program worked to increase early entry into prenatal care by refining a trusted model of care for prenatal care and integrate supportive services and substance abuse treatment. This work will continue with support from a new MHCF implementation grant.

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2015

St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation

Integrated Prenatal Care Model for Native American Women: Reducing Substance Abuse during Pregnancy

This grant will provide case management and program coordination for pregnant Native American women struggling with addiction by developing a program that creates supportive, integrated access to perinatal care and addiction treatment. The program will support sobriety and provide evidence-based treatment during pregnancy to decrease the occurrence of neonatal abstinence syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome, as well as to support a path to long-term recovery. The care coordinator position will be a part of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Health Department. Key partners include the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Board of Health, Indian Health Service, and Rimrock Foundation. Expected outcomes include improved access to prenatal care and substance abuse services for pregnant Native women on and off the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, decreased substance abuse in pregnant women, and a reduction in negative birth outcomes and medical costs associated with drug use during pregnancy.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

24 month

2016

Western Montana Mental Health - Gallatin Mental Health Center

Integrated Behavioral Health for Western and South Central Montana

With this grant, the Western Montana Mental Health Center (WMMHC) consulted with the National Council for Behavioral Health to provide training on integrated behavioral health (IBH) to 11 health center directors, and to incorporate IBH into WMMHC’s mission and vision. In addition to IBH strategic planning, WMMHC led an effort to review the integration of behavioral health services in the community of Livingston by bringing together health leaders and stakeholders. After the initial meeting of stakeholders, task forces were created to focus on developing a community care pathway for youth, increasing utilization of volunteers, improving management of individuals in crisis, and strengthening partnerships among organizations. The task forces met individually and collectively on multiple occasions throughout the course of the grant. The crisis management team reviewed data on how many people have been to the emergency department during a mental health crisis. Challenges that they identified included transportation, response time by the crisis response team, lack of prompt access to care, and the need to divert people from the emergency department to more appropriate levels of care. The crisis management team will continue to meet monthly to improve admissions from the Livingston emergency department to WMMHC’s crisis facilities.

Grant Amount

$22,400

Term

12 month

2015

Western Montana Mental Health Center

Ravalli County Strategic Alliance for Improved Mental Health and Well-Being

Ravalli County will develop a plan for redesigning the behavioral health crisis system to reduce emergency department admission and criminal justice encounters and recidivism. The Western Montana Mental Health Center (WMMHC) will serve as the lead organization, with partners including Sapphire Health, Marcus Daly Hospital, and the Ravalli County Sheriff. The partners have agreed to a formal charter that establishes project goals and each partner’s commitments. The project will begin with an analysis of the existing crisis system and how behavioral health, emergency department, and corrections resources are currently used to respond to people in crisis. Based on this analysis, the grantee will develop a plan for crisis diversion that aims to de-escalate crises and thereby reduce reliance on high-cost emergency care and corrections system resources. MHCF funding will be used to hire a project coordinator to oversee the project.

Grant Amount

$35,000

Term

12 month

2019

Western Montana Mental Health Center - Recovery Center Missoula

Recovery Center Missoula Pregnant and Parenting Women

The Western Montana Mental Health Center expanded its treatment services to pregnant and parenting women in Missoula and Lake Counties. The treatment center opened two new residential treatment step-down facilities and treated 33 women during the project. Unfortunately, one of their service centers in St. Ignatius (The Nest) faced significant challenges and shut down in the fall of 2019. Aspen Home in Missoula made substantial improvements in staffing, adding peer support services, updating its policies and procedures, and increasing staff training on therapeutic practices and the use of treatment concepts in direct care. Aspen Home continues to provide services to women in both Lake County and Missoula.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

24 month

2017

Women in Action, Inc.

Identifying and Addressing Gaps in Big Sky’s Mental Health Services

This grant will support initial steps to strengthen behavioral health and address gaps in Big Sky’s behavioral health resources. Women in Action will work with the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation to bring together stakeholders including Big Sky Medical Center, mental health and substance use providers, the Help Center, the Big Sky school district, and Haven, to catalog existing resources and create innovative solutions to Big Sky’s unique behavioral health demands. Funds will be used to support a partial FTE to help initiate the planning, coalition building, and develop a strategic plan for the community.

Grant Amount

$14,760

Term

24 month

2018

Youth Dynamics

Substance Abuse Treatment Program Expansion Pilot Program

Youth Dynamics worked to expand its Billings-based program for treating co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders to Cascade and Missoula counties. Ultimately, it was not able to expand its services to these communities because of leadership and staff turnover. However, through the process, Youth Dynamics reassessed its continuum of care, the communities it currently serves, and its partners. They also successfully advanced a telehealth platform to connect addiction counselors to communities in need of services and implemented an in-house curriculum and pathway to get their license for addiction counseling.

Grant Amount

$136,146

Term

24 month

2016

Youth Homes

Enhancing Wilderness Therapy through Aftercare and Parent Programming

This project’s goal was to enhance the wilderness youth therapy program’s services by adding case management and expanding programming for caregivers. The wilderness youth therapy program offered a 45-day wilderness trip for youth ages 13-17 with co-occurring behavioral issues and a simultaneous program for parents and family members. The program sought to reduce criminal justice involvement and placement with child and family services, as well as to increase family placement and academic achievement. As a result of this project, 88 percent of the youth who participated were placed with their families and 94 percent continued to earn high school credits following the program (prior to participation, 82 percent of youth demonstrated academic failure). In addition, the percentage of youth employed in their communities increased from 6 to 24 percent within two months of program completion. Unfortunately, Youth Homes’ wilderness youth therapy program was closed due to state budget cuts and the long-term impacts on child welfare, criminal justice, family engagement, and academic performance of the youth who participated in the program could not be evaluated.

Grant Amount

$26,088

Term

12 month

2017