In January, 2022, Kennebec Behavioral Health began enrolling clients under our new Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) project.
The CCBHC model is a community-focused, recovery-oriented approach to behavioral health care that is built around increasing access to care for people who most need it and integrating behavioral and primary health care to offer true whole-person care. There are now more than 430 CCBHCs in 42 states, and CCBHCs are becoming the new national standard in behavioral health care.
In the past year, our CCBHC grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has helped us develop enhanced risk screening and access processes, provide 24/7 crisis response through a partnership with Crisis & Counseling Centers, and establish new Care Coordination services to give clients one-on-one support as they move into KBH’s treatment programs.
KBH has strengthened services for clients across the age spectrum by training dozens of clinicians in evidence-based therapies that meet key needs in our community, such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Multi-Systemic Therapy for youth ages 12-17 (MST), and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for younger children.
We are expanding KBH’s existing peer support programs, in which trained peer support specialists who have been successful in recovering from mental health and substance use challenges of their own work with clients who are experiencing similar situations, building bonds of trust, understanding and respect.
Another important part of our CCBHC work is a strong focus on specialized services for veterans, active armed services members and their families, who often have unmet behavioral health needs in our society.
One year into our CCBHC project, KBH has now enrolled more than 600 clients into CCBHC services, and we are working with the Maine Department of Health & Human Services to build provisions for CCBHC reimbursement into MaineCare. As we start our second year of CCBHC implementation, we are excited about continuing to develop this comprehensive model of integrated behavioral health care for individuals and families in our community.
