Rural health care services outreach grant program - our project will address the need for a comprehensive, coordinated system of care for substance use and CO-occurring mental health services

Our rural underserved population historically suffering from poor health outcomes and disparities includes native americans and tribal members, and individuals and families experiencing substance use and CO-occurring mental health conditions during the perinatal and postpartum period. Our goals are to (1) increase capacity to deliver comprehensive, evidence-based substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services accessible to rural residents. (2) mount a rural collaborative infrastructure to increase screening, identification, assessment, referral and follow up of individuals at risk for or with SUD, to improve health outcomes and reduce mortality. (3) reduce stigma toward people with SUD to increase engagement and retention in treatment and improve outcomes, with enhanced focus on the subpopulation of pregnant, postpartum and parenting individuals. (4) establish treatment, recovery and supports tailored to the needs of pregnant, postpartum and parenting individuals to promote recovery and strong families. We will apply evidence-based practices including the comprehensive healthcare integration framework, moms do care, screening brief intervention and referral to services (SBIRT) and medication assisted treatment in a hub-and-spoke model. We will achieve outcomes important to the health and well-being of our community, including: (1) expand services and access to reduce unmet social needs and the SUD and mental health treatment GAP; (2) improve access by reducing stigma toward people with and treatment for SUD and mental health conditions; (3) increase enrollment of pregnant, postpartum and parenting individuals in SUD and mental health treatment and recovery to improve health and social outcomes; (4) increase availability of family services and support pregnant, postpartum and parenting individuals, to build family strength and resilience, and address unmet social need; and (5) collaborate on policy change to improve family outcomes through reduction in maternal incarceration and child separation due to SUD. Duncan regional hospital is proud of our long history serving our rural underserved populations. For 50 years, we have been the regional convener of collaborations to assess community needs and improve health, and have decades of experience forming consortiums and implementing programs like pathways to stronger families. Duncan regional hospital qualifies for the health professional shortage area (HPSA) funding preference because the applicant organization is located in a dental health, mental health and primary care HPSA.