Rocky Mountain Development Council, Inc's Retired Senior Volunteer Program 2015

Tri-County RSVP Keeping You Home Project

This project’s goal was to reduce the risk of hospital re-admission for high-risk seniors and disabled individuals. This pilot project successfully recruited 13 RSVP (retired senior volunteer program) volunteers to work with 47 discharged patients from St. Peters Hospital in Helena and four other rural hospitals. A care coordination training toolkit was developed and agreements for accessing patients’ health records were secured. Only two of the patients who took part in the program were re-admitted to St. Peters (which was well below the 20 percent re-admission rate that the hospital had experienced prior). Local health care providers found the program to be useful in reducing hospital re-admissions and plan to support it moving forward. 

Grant Amount

$25,000

Term

12 month

2015

Sidney Health Center 2015

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 2015

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

University of Montana - Department of Psychology 2015

Effective Integrated Behavioral Health Partnerships for Rural Montana: A Collaborative Training Proposal

This project established the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health (RIBH) Program – a pilot training curriculum to train and certify integrated behavioral health providers across the state. A collaborative venture of the University of Montana’s Department of Psychology, School of Social Work, Montana Office of Rural Health and Area Health Education Center, and the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana, the RIBH program developed two integrated behavioral health curriculum and has standing classes at the University of Montana. RIBH also developed a website, online modules, and began to explore an developing an integrated behavioral health certificate to be offered through the University of Montana. Additionally, RIBH is actively pursuing a licensed mental health center to endorsement to further expand and solidify sustainability of integrated behavioral health offerings.

Grant Amount

$50,000

Term

24 month

2015

Western Montana Mental Health - Gallatin Mental Health Center 2015

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