FY 2024 behavioral health service expansion - kuumba community health and wellness center, INC., D/B/a new horizons healthcare is a not-for-profit, independent, federally qualified community health…

FY 2024 behavioral health service expansion - kuumba community health and wellness center, INC., D/B/a new horizons healthcare is a not-for-profit, independent, federally qualified community health center, whose mission is to provide culturally appropriate, affordable, high-quality, and comprehensive healthcare to underserved people in the greater roanoke area. New horizons healthcare serves a broad geographic area within the roanoke, virginia metropolitan statistical area (MSA of 315,000 residents). The center specifically targets the low-income population residing in the city of roanoke, the county of roanoke, and the city of salem, a total of 62,792 individuals. The city of roanoke's northwest and southeast quadrants (census tracts 001, 009-011, and 023-027) are designated as medically underserved areas (MUA), and the health center has a facility designation as a health professional shortage area (HPSA) for primary care, dental health, and mental health. More than 30 percent (30.43%) of residents in the service area are low income; 13% of residents in the city of roanoke and 8% in the county of roanoke and city of salem are uninsured. The most recent roanoke valley community health assessment (2021) revealed ten priority health-related issues in the service area, of which the top four are 1) access to mental/behavioral health services, 2) access to substance use disorder services, 3) alcohol and drug use, and 4) general mental health status. The next four priority issues in rank order can be classified as social determinants of health: poverty/low average household income, affordable/safe housing, transportation/transit system, and lack of family/social support system. Preliminary data recently collected for the 2024 version of this community assessment (not yet published) point toward similar persistent needs to be addressed. Substance use rates in the roanoke valley are among the highest in the state and well above national averages. Fatal drug overdose has been the leading method O F unnatural death in virginia since 2013. Opioids, specifically illicit fentanyl, have been the driving force behind the large increases in fatal overdoses. In the city of roanoke, the rate of all fatal drug overdoses in 2022 was 108.8-134.7 per 100,000, one of three localities in the commonwealth with the highest incidence rates. In salem, the rate was 30.7-50.6.the most recent (2021) youth risk behavior survey revealed that among area high school students in the past 30 days, 4.4% used tobacco, 19% drank alcohol, and 14% used marijuana; 36.3% and 31.8% of roanoke and salem middle school students answered affirmatively when asked if they had extended periods of feeling SAD or hopeless to the point they stopped doing some usual activities in the past 12 months, 17.7% and 15.3% responded yes to a question about having a suicide plan. IT is widely recognized that gaps exist along the continuum of behavioral health and addiction care within the service area. The overall goal of this grant is to increase the number of patients receiving mental health (MH) services, substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, including medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), by the end of calendar year 2025. This program will serve patients of all ages, with a focus on populations needing trauma therapy, intensive outpatient services, and office-based addiction treatment (OBAT). Children and youth will be screened for needs in headstart and school-based sites, with services delivered in health center clinical settings. Funding from this grant will be used to expand the current behavioral health team with additional providers and staff who will support our team-based model. Planned staffing includes a pediatric behavioral health counselor, family engagement specialist/case manager, trauma therapist, SUD therapist, patient access representative, addictionologist services (via telehealth), and pediatric nurse practitioner (with increased hours dedicated to this project) and medical assistant S.