The Guidance Center’s Claudette Johnson, RN, Director of Wellness Services and Denise Bean, Ph.D., Executive Director recently presented to over 100 individuals at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing technical and assistance forum. The topic was discussing Primary Care Screening and Monitoring in Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC).
Founded in 1969 and based in Washington, DC, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing is a membership organization that drives policy and social change. Its goal is to promote greater understanding of mental wellbeing as a core component of comprehensive health and health care. Recent data indicates that an estimated 53.4 % of US adults have mental and physical health conditions and many behavioral health clinics are asked to treat these comorbid conditions. CCBHC is a specially-designated clinic that provides a comprehensive range of mental health and substance use services. The CCBHC model alleviates decades-old challenges that have led to a crisis in providing access to mental health and substance use care.
The Guidance Center is one of the original CCBHC’s in the country. Recognizing the promise of the CCBHC model, Congress in 2020 expanded the original eight-state Medicaid demonstration program to include additional states, and since 2018 has appropriated grant funding to support CCBHC readiness. Today, more than 430 CCBHCs are operating in 42 states, plus Guam.