FY 2021 community mental health centers (CMHC) grant program FOA no

SM-21-014 on behalf of the mental health center of east central kansas DBA crosswinds counseling and wellness - the crosswinds FY 2021 CMHC grant project will serve adults with serious mental illness, children with serious emotional disturbance and those adults and children with a CO-occurring substance use disorder. The project is focused on meeting unmet demand within the seven east central kansas counties served by crosswinds, including chase, coffey, greenwood, lyon, morris, osage and wabaunsee and improving access for the hispanic and agricultural populations. The goal of the program is to increase access to services through applying same day access practices, increasing capacity to meet unmet need, improving cultural awareness and sensitivity. While the activities of this project will impact most individuals receiving behavioral health services from crosswinds, IT is targeted to specifically serve 200 individuals in year one and 300 individuals in year two, for a total, unduplicated count of 500 individuals over the life of the project. Meeting the increased demand for services will require maintaining adequate staffing in a health professional shortage area. One key aspect of this is staff retention. The past 15 months have presented significant challenges for the staff. This project will include additional training relative to telehealth, surviving covid-19 and self-wellness. Staff will also receive training in cultural awareness and trauma informed care. Crosswinds will recruit and hire spanish speaking staff to serve the hispanic population. Additionally, crosswinds will develop spanish language, culturally tuned marketing and outreach materials to help break down barriers to access. A separate office location will be established to provide a culturally comfortable environment for services. To assist in improving access for the hispanic population as well as the agricultural population in this largely rural geographic area, crosswinds will purchase and convert an RV into a mobile clinic.