An Innovative Approach: Opening the State’s First “Tech-Enabled Behavioral Health Home”
Adult and Child has received a grant from the Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA) to open a Tech-Enabled Behavioral Health Home, the first in the State of Indiana to integrate a web-based platform in their program design. People with mental illness die, on average, 25 years younger than the rest of the population, often due to unmanaged chronic disease. This pilot program addresses the poor mental and physical health outcomes among adults experiencing a serious mental illness and gives them a single “home” for their coordinated health care services. “We are excited to expand our services, and improve support for adults’ total health needs,” said Allen Brown, CEO at Adult and Child Center. “In addition to supporting our goals of improved health care for our clients, this model is of particular interest to many of our community partners because it allows for one stop health care shopping, social support engagements, supported employment, housing access, and on-going quality care. We believe this pilot will demonstrate both improved health outcomes and significant cost savings in treating people with serious mental illness.” About the Tech-Enabled Behavioral Health Home The Tech-Enabled Behavioral Health Home is aimed at improving all health outcomes, while decreasing the costs of care. Adults who struggle with co-occurring mental and chronic physical health conditions comprise 5% of the population, but are estimated to use 50% of the available health care funding, due to their inability to effectively manage their illnesses. Research demonstrates adults who experience a serious mental illness, when left to their own devices, do not effectively manage their health (mental or physical); often resulting in early mortalities and significantly increased costs of care (increased duration and frequency of inpatient stays and increased inappropriate health care expenses). The primary guiding principles of this program are based upon the idea that mental illness is treatable; and that the role of A&C staff is to guide and support consumers in their recovery. Core elements of the Behavioral Health Home Pilot include disease self-management supports, patient focused delivery system design, clinical decision support, clinical information systems, and encouraging community linkages. Tech-Enabled Behavioral Health Home services will be available to adults who reside in Marion and Johnson counties, and who experience serious mental health and co-occurring primary care disorders.
Neighborhood Based Mental Health Project
Outreach Services to Minorities and Refugees Adult and Child Center is very excited to announce a grant award from the Indiana Department of Mental Health and Addictions to embed behavioral health staff into neighborhood based programs which are focused on serving minority populations around Greater Indianapolis. This multiple year project will embed staff in programs at Esperanza Ministries, BACI-Indy, and Catholic Charities starting January 2016. With the implementation of HIP 2.0 in Indiana, and the steady uptick in the minority populations in and around Indianapolis, Adult and Child Center is beginning to see an increase in the demand for behavioral health services from non-english speaking populations. “We are very excited to have great partners like BACI, Esperanza, and Catholic Charities on this project. Each of them are amazingly mission driven and focused on improving the general health and well-being of their consumers. This project is very unique and exciting because while we are embedding clinical staff in new cultures, we will also use Peer Specialist to bridge the language and cultural divide. A Peer Specialist is someone from a particular culture who is also well versed in the delivery of behavioral health services.” said Dan Arens, Director of Business Development at Adult and Child Center. This project is the first of many programs A&C hopes to implement in Central Indiana focused on providing increased access to behavioral health services. “A significant part of Adult and Child Center’s Neighborhood Based Mental Health plan involves better engagement of minority populations. A&C is proud to have partnered with 3 minority focused agencies in this proposal. The plan of operation involves developing a low cost model of engagement from within these minority communities. In order to break through generationally engrained cultural barriers and stigma around mental health and addictions, Adult and Child Center is proposing an innovative model. Through this model, Adult and Child Center will leverage both a full-time LCSW with special interest in supporting minority populations AND specially trained bi-lingual peer specialists from each partner agency culture to identify, engage, and support the populations targeted within this proposal. The goal of this project is to increase mental health service usage rates among targeted minority populations. The critical components of improving access to care include culturally sensitive engagement, relationship building, education, and warm hand-offs.”
Multi-Agency Homeless Outreach Team
In June 2014, the City of Indianapolis released a proclamation recognizing the blended efforts of multiple agencies to better engage the homeless population in Indy. Adult and Child Center is very proud to be part of this blended outreach team and happy to play an active role in working with people who experience homelessness, engaging them in services, and helping them recovery from mental health and/or addictions issues. We are proud to be their partners in health, inspiring hope and well-being.
A&C featured in IBJ Giving Guide
Adult and Child Center is very excited to have been featured in the 2015 Giving Guide by the Indianapolis Business Journal. The Giving Guide is an annual publication which highlights the philanthropic community of Indianapolis. Adult and Child Center is proud to be an integral part of the giving nature of Central Indiana residents! We serve over 5,600 adults, children, and families each year in Central Indiana and are very honored by the support of our community. Without Indy’s support, our daily work would be much more challenging.
