The Bureau of Primary Health Care, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded a $600,000 Project Grant under the Community Health Centers program (CFDA 93.224) to Mountain Community Health Partnership, Incorporated (MCHP). This 2-year grant, effective September 1, 2024, will support the expansion of behavioral health services, including mental health, substance use disorder (SUD), and medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD), in the rural communities of Mitchell and Yancey counties in western North Carolina.
Specifically, the grant funding will enable MCHP to: 1) expand collaboration with local justice departments and school systems to integrate behavioral health services; 2) double the capacity of the peer support specialist program; 3) introduce a behavioral health care navigation program to improve community access; and 4) add a dedicated SUD/MOUD medical provider and pharmacist to the clinical team. MCHP aims to increase the number of mental health service patients by 20% to 1,176 by 2025, raise SUD service patients by 20% to 238, and boost MOUD patients by 19% to 615 over the same period.