News & Discussion

Birch Health Center featured in The Center for Health Design Magazine

The health care environment, always in flux, has been changing even more rapidly over the past several years, with a focus on improved integration between physical and behavioral health care.  In an effort to shape and respond to these changes, the Community Mental Health Authority of Clinton, Eaton, and Ingham Counties (CMH) has, for the past several years, embarked on a number of initiatives, spanning many dimensions of the organization’s operations.  A recent article in The Center for Health Design Magazine highlights The Ingham Community Health Center's BIRCH Center, housed within our main campus. Click HERE to view the article.

Through collaborative efforts between Community Mental Health, Michigan State University, the Sparrow Family Medicine Residency Program and the Ingham County Health Department’s Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), a primary care health center housed within CMH became fully operational in July of 2013. This health center is designed to focus on serving the chronic, acute, and well-check needs of CMH consumers who have little or no access to primary care. Between its official launch in April 2013, and the most recent count in June 2014, BIRCH Center has a total of 491 patients.

Our collaborative workgroup began looking at the barriers to accessing primary care for those diagnosed with serious mental illness, developmental disabilities and substance use disorders.  The common barriers were issues of stigma, cost of treatment, transportation and problems with appointment scheduling.  In creating BIRCH (Building Inter-professional Relationships for Community Health) we hope to bridge these and other gaps in obtaining healthcare for many in our community.  

View the full article from The Center for Health Design Magazine.