LWC behavioral health improvement & advancement: fostering health equality through access care equitably (ACE) initiative - across the nation, millions of individuals and thousands of communities…

LWC behavioral health improvement & advancement: fostering health equality through access care equitably (ACE) initiative - across the nation, millions of individuals and thousands of communities are being impacted by mental health and substance use disorder needs - needs that have increased in complexity and demand since the covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has strongly influenced behavioral health symptoms and behaviors due to the far-reaching medical, economic, social, and political consequences, further highlighting the imperative need to address a prominent service area GAP continuing to plague our community: equitable access to care. Evidence demonstrates that people without health insurance are less likely to receive preventative care and services for physical and behavioral health conditions. Currently, approximately 20% of individuals (nearly 45,000 people) in whatcom county are either uninsured or on medicare. Access to health care requires not only insurance coverage, but also access to health care providers. One out of fourteen whatcom county residents experience a behavioral health need. However, whatcom county is also a federally-designated health professional shortage area, meaning the demand for health care services far exceeds the number of available providers. The ratio of whatcom county residents to every one behavioral health provide is 262:1 and 1,164:1 for every one primary care provider. Access to care disparities are prominent issues in whatcom county due to health insurance barriers, economic hardships, and limited availability of service providers. By implementing our ACE (access care equitably) initiative through this grant, LWC will advance health equity in whatcom county by ensuring that social determinants of health, such as diagnosis, insurance, housing and employment statuses, do not impact individuals' abilities to access quality care through our services. Over the course of this project period, ACE will focus on health care equality by achieving six core goals: advancing affordable access to care for individuals with non-medicaid (uninsured/medicare) insurance statuses in need of behavioral health care in the community; improving timely access to care by providing services in the community and reducing wait times; alleviating the impact of community-based workforce shortages by increasing hiring capacity; improving collaboration with crisis, law, and criminal justice systems to reduce unnecessary high utilization; and engaging in activities that assist in better understanding and service provision to underserved populations in our community. With successful implementation of ACE, LWC will be able to increase annually the number of individuals who are able to access care by 10%, serving an additional 650 unduplicated individuals throughout the entire project period.