NSCHC Receives Funding to Expand Behavioral Health Care
Aaryn Hunt, Miss Pennsylvania for America Strong 2024 and Keynote Speaker of the Annual Fundraising Gala
North Side Christian Health Center received a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to expand Behavioral Health Care for NSCHC patients. On Thursday, September 18, the HRSA, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced $240 million in awards to launch and expand mental health and substance use disorder services in more than 400 community health centers across the country, 13 in Pennsylvania.
This funding WILL support expanded behavioral HEALTH services
NSCHC will be able to recruit for a therapist specializing in addiction medicine, offer care and peer navigation services, and renovate a space at Northview Heights for behavioral health consultations. If objectives are met, the award will be renewed for a second year. After the initial launch of the NSCHC Behavioral Health Department in 2020, this is a tremendous opportunity to further expand services and better meet the needs of the Northside and Northview Heights communities.
IMPORTANCE OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CARE
“Access to behavioral health care is critical for communities of color and underserved groups,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “HRSA-funded health centers have a proven record of success in reaching underserved communities. This funding expands their access to essential behavioral health services that will benefit entire communities.”
Click here to hear the personal behavioral health story of Aaryn Hunt, Miss Pennsylvania for America Strong 2024. Aaryn is the Keynote Speaker of the NSCHC Annual Fundraising Gala.
Health centers are trusted community providers and a primary source of care for individuals across the country who are uninsured, underinsured, or enrolled in Medicaid – making them well-positioned to respond to the urgent need for behavioral health services that are high quality, stigma-free, culturally competent, and readily accessible. These grants will help expand access to needed care to help tackle the nation’s mental health and opioid crises – two pillars of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Unity Agenda for the nation.
“In the Biden-Harris Administration, more people now have health care coverage than at any point in our nation’s history. With today’s announcement to establish and expand behavioral health care in hundreds of community health centers, we are further demonstrating our commitment not only to health coverage but to access to care,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson. “Mental health and substance use disorder treatment are essential elements of primary care, and there should be no wrong door for families to get the behavioral health care they need.”
The Biden-Harris Administration has called for requiring and funding mental health and substance use disorder services in all 1,400 HRSA-supported health centers nationwide that together serve more than 31 million people. Today, health centers are only able to meet about 27% of the demand for mental health services and 6% of the substance use disorder treatment demand among their patients. Last year, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed bipartisan legislation to enact the Administration’s proposal to make behavioral health a core health center service. The Administration looks forward to further congressional action to secure this critical expansion of mental health and substance use disorder treatment as part of a multiyear extension of community health center funding.