FY 2024 behavioral health service expansion - peoples community health clinic (pchc) first received health center program funding in 1976 to provide primary care services in black hawk county…

FY 2024 behavioral health service expansion - peoples community health clinic (pchc) first received health center program funding in 1976 to provide primary care services in black hawk county located in northeast iowa. Since then, pchc continued to grow to meet the needs of the underserved, including adding a site in rural clarksville (butler county) in 2008 and adding a school-based clinic for behavioral health in clarksville (butler county) in 2023. Pchc's long history in the region allows for a unique understanding of the needs of the patients in this service area. Funding through the FY2024 behavioral health service expansion opportunity will assist serving individuals in the pchc service area, individuals with incomes at or below 200% FPG, the uninsured and under-insured, and individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The patients in this service area have significant healthcare challenges including access to substance use disorder and mental health services. This funding will allow pchc to further address these needs. Pchc began providing psychiatric services in 2017, substance use disorder services in 2018, and mat in 2019. In 2024, pchc completed a 20,000-SF addition at the waterloo site to create space for a dedicated behavioral health department. With the expansion, the clinic has the need and space to use these grant funds to add a 1.0 FTE psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (pmhnp), 2.0 FTE behavioral health counselors, 1.0 FTE behavioral health therapist, and 1.0 FTE behavioral health RN/LPN to the existing behavioral health team. The additional behavioral health counselors will provide needed integrated behavioral health support for the satellite clinic, dental department, urgent care department, and behavioral health department. The additional pmhnp and therapist will create much needed access for patients with mental health conditions and substance use disorders (SUD) for treatment, monitoring, and support. The pmhnp will provide additional access for patients needing treatment with medications for opioid use disorder (moud). As staff are added, a marketing campaign will ensue to create awareness, increase knowledge, and promote access to the clinic services around SUD and moud. This grant will provide educational funding to train new behavioral health staff on accelerated resolution therapy (art) for patients experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd). Art will allow a unique option and access for new and existing patients suffering with ptsd. Funding for up to 8 hours of CEU's for all providers on opioid/SUD education will also be provided. The SUD program will be enhanced by using the grant funds to modify the standard 12 drug screening kit to a 16-panel screening that would include toxicology screening for synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Many of our behavioral health patients use multiple medications throughout the day and with different prescribing times. This can lead to confusion and mismanagement of medications. Pchc will use these grant funds to purchase a prescription machine that will synchronize and package the patient's medications in convenient pouches marked by dosage, day, date, and time. This will assist the patient to know exactly what and when to take their different medications. IT is not anticipated that the projects covered with the grant funds will require a scope adjustment or change in scope for health center services or sites. The staffing impact will be a workforce increase of 5.0 ftes. The program is expected to increase mental health service patients by 100, SUD patients by 10 and mat patients by 10. The overall number of unduplicated new patients to pchc is estimated at 120 by the end of calendar year 2025.