FY 2021 community mental health centers (CMHC) grant program - chcs will open a planned eastside mental health clinic, bringing critical care to SAN antonio east/northeast quadrant

Covid-19 forced chcs to postpone this resource expansion, triggering a 172.1% increase in crisis events; the pandemic also overwhelmed clinical and direct care staff, worsening an already critical staffing shortage. Chcs will use CMHC funding to fast-track the clinic openings and strengthen staff supports in order to retain our vital providers. Project name. Community mental health center/eastside mental health clinic population to be served. Economically disadvantaged children with serious emotional disturbance (SED) or CO-occurring disorders (COD) and adults with serious mental illness (SMI) or COD living in east or northeast SAN antonio. Most all (90%) will be persons of color and low-income. Strategies and interventions. Chcs is strengthening its mental health continuum in an effort to meet a larger share of consumer needs. Among chcs centerpiece strategies was the planned 2021 opening of the eastside mental health clinic, bringing critical care to adults living in the east and northeast quadrant. However, as the impact of the pandemic escalated, revenue dropped and costs increased, causing chcs to place a hold on plans to open the eastside clinic. As a result, adults in this area must continue to travel out of area (up to 15 miles away) for care. Stepped up outreach strategies targeting this quadrant and designed to find and connect to care children and youth with SED and COD and adults with SMI or COD have similarly stalled. With the CMHC grant, chcs will remedy these predominant, covid-related barriers to care for adults and children, and will strengthen staff supports to ensure this vital resource remains continuously available. Goals and objectives. This initiative has two goals: 1) to provide easily accessed care to children with SED or COD and adults with SMI or COD living in the east/northeast quadrant; and 2) to build organizational capacity to ensure the continuous provision of highest quality services from the new eastside mental health clinic. Among the enabling objectives are: a) opening the eastside clinic; B) conducting extensive outreach to connect children and adults to in-area care resources; C) developing a well-defined monitoring and compliance framework and using standardized CQI processes to maintain and improve performance; D) using program data to inform operations; and E) providing continuous support to staff to reduce burn-out and support retention. Number to be served. The program will serve 500 consumers in both years 1 and 2, or a total of 1,000 consumers over two years.