HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) awarded a four-year grant to WellStone this week, allowing the nonprofit organization to implement the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model for care delivery.
The CCBHC model ensures access to 24/7/365 crisis care, along with care coordination with hospitals, law enforcement, and schools. according to COO Chris Van Dyke, the grant will also allow WellStone to expand its services, providing “one-stop shop” opportunities for clients.
"This is a national model that is really intended to improve quality and set some national standards for care," stated Van Dyke. "So, we are the second center in Alabama to receive this kind of a grant and we’re very excited about what it’s gonna do."
Individuals will be able to receive their mental healthcare, substance use treatment, and primary health screenings onsite. There are other high-quality programs resulting from the grant.
"The first is primary care in our adult outpatient services." Van Dyke stated. Second, it’s going to expand our mobile crisis capability, and then the third thing is we’re going to create a veteran's care coordinator position, and the goal of this position is to provide outreach to veterans and active duty, military members. Lastly, it’s going to help us to implement measurement base care Which will be through an online platform. It’ll help us to connect to clients when they’re not here in the office."
WellStone, along with state and local partners, has worked hard to complete North Alabama’s continuum of crisis care with a new, state-of-the-art facility for WellStone Emergency Services (WES); masters’ level therapists who serve as co-responders with crisis-trained Huntsville police officers; and most recently, crisis-trained counselors who field local calls from the new 988 suicide and crisis line. Thanks to the SAMHSA grant, WellStone will begin implementing the 24/7/365 mobile crisis unit, as well as other CCBHC-related programs, in October.