CMH

Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC)

In 2014, as a response to the increase in suicides and the Opioid Epidemic, there was the passage of the Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Act. This Act had bipartisan support and created what are now called Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC).



CCBHC is a model of care! Some of its overarching goals are:

Connecting mental health, substance use, and primary care/physical health

Your mental health, substance use, and physical health are all related and affect each other. For example, feeling sad, hearing voices, or going through a lot of stress can all lead someone to turn to substances to feel better. A person with hypertension who also uses substances to the point of it being a problem could end up worsening their blood pressure through their substance use. These are only a few examples, but when your treatment teams work together, they can get a better picture of your overall health and give you better treatment.



Read Peter’s* family’s testimonial story about how he received whole-person care at Families Forward as well as care coordination with the help of a Nurse Care Manager.

*Name changed for confidentiality reasons.

What do our partners say about coordinating care with us?

Providing you with treatment that has been proven to help people get better and recover

People deserve to have care that has shown time and again through careful research to improve the lives of others who are similar to them. When connected to a treatment program, a person may have certain thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or situations that make them a good candidate for one of these treatment models. Check out below what we have here at CMHA-CEI.

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)

Charter House Clubhouse

Parent Management Training - Oregon Model (PMTO)

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TFCBT)

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Making community mental health centers across the nation similar to each other so you know what to expect from treatment no matter what state you go to

Back in the 1980’s, states designed their mental health centers differently, so if you moved to another state and hoped to connect to mental health treatment, you wouldn’t know what to expect – the agency may not use treatment proven to help people get better or make sure you were connected to treatment as soon as possible when you needed it. CCBHC calls for agencies to provide (or work with another agency to provide) at least 9 "essential services."

Making it easier for you to get the care you need when you need it

Sometimes things get tough, we may not know where to turn, and we need help as soon as possible. It can also be really hard to even reach out and ask for help to begin with. Here are some of the ways we have been making it easier for you to get the care you need:

	1. We made some changes to our intake processes so that people can sometimes get care the same day they request it.
	2. We also started a mobile crisis unit for adults and children a couple of years ago who helps local police, schools, and community centers with crises out in the community.
	3. Some of our programs have psychiatrists who will meet with you through telehealth.
	4. Sometimes medication combined with talk therapy is helpful for people who are recovering from addiction. We have some doctors here who can prescribe them or we can connect you to one outside of CMH.
	5. We also have staff who connect with people who are incarcerated to help them obtain coverage before they are released so they can connect to treatment sooner.
	6. Some units have therapists or staff who can meet with you outside of traditional work hours.

Using data to make better treatment and program decisions and changes

Within the first year of our second expansion grant, we found that psychological distress, substance use, and binge drinking among CCBHC consumers was statistically significantly lower overall after 6 months of treatment.

92% of adults and children enrolled in CCBHC had a positive perception of their care.

*Definition of “retained in community” – Refers to the consumer’s ability to maintain life within the community during the past 30 days (excludes homeless, hospital for mental health care, detox/inpatient/residential for substance abuse, or correctional facility).

Additionally, from May 2020 to April 2021:

1. 50 people received 70 mobile crisis services
2. 554 people received 7,765 detox services from The Recovery Center
3. 198 Veterans received care from our agency
4. 104 people were enrolled in CCBHC who had a substance use disorder
5. 80% of (or 952) CCBHC consumers had an identified primary care provider
6. 230 people received 8,958 services that are a part of an Evidence-Based Practice