[NYAPRS Enews] Community Care, Rural Providers Launch Health Home for People with Psych Disabilities

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: Community Care Behavioral Health, the organization that has
been tapped to implement the Regional Behavioral Health Orgnaization
imitative in NY's Hudson River region, is apparently poised to launch a
health home in 2 sites in its home state of Pennsylvania. 

 

Community Care and Rural Providers Implement a Health Home for People
with Serious Mental Illness

 

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to reduce high
morbidity and mortality rates among people with serious mental illness,
Community Care Behavioral Health Organization is implementing "health
home" models at two behavioral health sites in Pennsylvania.  

The Behavioral Health Home Plus model was created in collaboration with
the Behavioral Health Alliance of Rural Pennsylvania (BHARP), which
includes County MH/MR Administrators, Human Service Directors, and
Single County Authorities from 23 counties in north central
Pennsylvania.  The model promotes the integration of behavioral and
physical health services.  

The health home model recognizes the high morbidity and mortality rates
among persons who have serious mental illness and who often use tobacco
and struggle with their weight.  The model provides tools for consumers
and providers that support tobacco cessation, weight management, and the
management of physical health conditions.

 

Key components include:

*	Inclusion of nurses with physical health expertise within the
behavioral health system.
*	Training of case managers and peer specialists to serve as
health navigators.
*	Web-based tools for consumers and providers to support wellness
and care coordination.
*	Implementation of strategies to engage primary care settings in
improved coordination.

The first two sites for the implementation of this model are the
Columbia/Montour/Snyder/Union (CMSU) Mental Health/Mental
Retardation/Drug and Alcohol Program and the Northumberland County
Behavioral Health and Intellectual/Developmental Services.  Nursing
services will be provided by Geisinger Health System.  Plans are
underway for Mathematica Policy Research and Community Care to evaluate
the impact of this model.

 

About BHARP

In partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare's
Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) and in
collaboration with other stakeholders, BHARP works with Community Care
to ensure that a comprehensive, responsive, unified, cost-effective,
recovery-oriented behavioral health system of care is available within a
23-county region in Pennsylvania.

 

About Community Care

Community Care, a nonprofit, tax-exempt recovery-focused behavioral
health managed care organization headquartered in Pittsburgh, manages
mental health as well as drug and alcohol services for approximately
700,000 members throughout Pennsylvania who are covered by Medical
Assistance.  Community Care was incorporated in 1996 with a mission to
improve the health and well-being of the community through the delivery
of effective and accessible behavioral health services.

SOURCE Community Care

 

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