Mitigating the effects of covid-19 by revitalizing and expanding behavioral care servicesdelivered by pawnee mental health services - the samhsa community mental health centers grant program will…

Mitigating the effects of covid-19 by revitalizing and expanding behavioral care servicesdelivered by pawnee mental health services - the samhsa community mental health centers grant program will enable pawnee mental health services (pmhs) to mitigate the effects of covid-19 by revitalizing and expanding behavioral health care services for consumers in our 10-county catchment area with SMI, SED, and COD. To achieve this, we will increase the number of people served, expand our agency's capacity to provide clinical and recovery support services, enhance our telehealth treatment knowledge and bring a focus to the mental wellness of our staff. Objectives to meet these goals include recruiting five therapists who will serve consumers exclusively through telehealth, providing training for our current and future clinical staff to improve their effectiveness in engaging consumers during telehealth visits, and reducing our waiting time for appointments. We will initiate an agriculture assistance program in our service area to provide access to mental health care for farmers and farmworkers with SMI or COD and a new program that will provide community psychiatric support services to veterans with SMI or COD. This grant will also provide funding for US to improve our salary structure, reducing turnover and the number of open positions. We will expand training for all ebts and provide diversity training for our entire staff. We will offer motivational/inspirational presentations to staff and equip each office with a treadmill and recumbent bike to encourage healthy work breaks. This grant will also provide resources to expand our crisis/respite beds for youth with SED and provide on-call mobile crisis staff. We will initiate weekend medication management at our crisis stabilization unit to support weekend discharges with appropriate medications. Research has shown that covid-19 has significantly exacerbated symptoms of those already living with SMI, SED, and COD. Pmhs currently provides a comprehensive continuum of mental health, crisis and recovery services. Through the resources provided by this grant, we will be well positioned to help more consumers deal with the effects of the pandemic and achieve improved mental health. In year one and year two of the grant we will serve 1,194 and 1,313 individuals respectively, and we anticipate serving a total of 1,581 unduplicated individuals.