By Shannon White

Seven Counties Services Inc. (SCS) has just been awarded a $4 million-dollar Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Expansion Grant from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to strengthen and expand its clinic in Bullitt County.

CCBHCs are a federally defined type of behavioral health clinic designed to expand access and provide a comprehensive range of evidence-based mental health and substance use disorder services to vulnerable individuals, including individuals with substance use disorders, adults with serious mental illness, and children/ adolescents with severe emotional disturbance.

SCS was awarded an initial CCBHC grant in 2018 to operationalize this clinic, and individuals are already experiencing the positive impact and outcomes that access to care provides.

Success Story

Jennie Hulette, project director, shared a story of a man who sought treatment due to a substance use disorder and a Child Protective Services case, which spurred him to want to change his life. “He was able to meet with a Peer Support Specialist, a new role that our CCBHC grant supports, which is someone with the lived experience of recovery to provide support to others experiencing similar challenges. Our Peer Support Specialist encouraged and inspired hope in him and a Care Coordinator (another grant-funded position) assisted him in accessing detox services at our Addiction Recovery Center.”

Once there, the client started a journey of being substance free. “He returned to the CCBHC site to participate in Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) services. Transportation had been a barrier for him in the past, but with CCBHC grant funded van services, the client was able to come consistently, complete the program and step down to weekly continuing care groups,” Hulette said. “He worked with his Peer Support Specialist to get connected to 12-Step meetings for natural supports. He continues to be substance free and this is his longest stretch of sobriety.”

Bullitt and Beyond

Although the CCBHC site is in Bullitt County, no individual will be turned away due to where they live or inability to pay. SCS covers a catchment area of Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties, and the need for services is prevalent.

Within this region, 22 percent of adults experience mental illness, 14 percent of children ages 2-17 have an emotional/behavioral/developmental condition(s), and eight percent of adults and four percent of adolescents ages 12-17 have a substance use disorder.

Without coordinated, whole person care options, these individuals are vulnerable to poor outcomes and at risk for higher rates of mortality, suicide, substance abuse, hospitalization, incarceration and homelessness.

With funding now secured for another two years, the CCBHC will continue to directly provide an array of integrated services/interventions, including crisis care; complete mental health screening; outpatient primary care screening and monitoring of key health indicators; patient-and family-centered integrated treatment planning; Recovery Oriented Medication Assisted Treatment and medication management; and trauma-informed outpatient mental health and substance use services.

Seven Counties Services president and CEO, Abby Drane, said, “We are so grateful for the opportunity to expand Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers across Kentucky. With this grant, we will be able to continue offering a comprehensive range of addiction and mental health services to our neighbors in Bullitt County. We know that this CCBHC expansion will stabilize people in crisis, reduce barriers to care and provide treatment and recovery support for those with complex mental and substance use disorders.”

CCBHC’s goals across clients served include decrease in mental health symptomatology by 25 percent; decrease in substance use by 25 percent; decrease in smoking by 25 percent; increase in daily life functioning by 50 percent; 90 percent client satisfaction with services and experience. Hulette is confident, “With CCBHC funding, we have the opportunity to impact lives like never before and continue to serve clients that need us the most.”

-Shannon White is with Seven Counties Services.