Mental health firms get $500K
Four nonprofit mental health organizations have received $500,000 in grants to improve primary care, according to a press release.
The Maine Health Access Foundation has awarded two-year grants of $125,000 each to the Charlotte White Center in Dover-Foxcroft, The Opportunity Alliance in Portland, Tri-County Mental Health Services in Lewiston and a partnership between MaineGeneral Community Care and Mid Maine Behavioral Health, which has four locations covering Somerset and Kennebec counties. The grants seek to improve basic primary care services for people with serious mental illnesses.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has designated the four organizations as “Behavioral Health Homes,” which will allow the centers to provide physical health screenings for patients with serious mental illnesses and provide referrals for a primary care provider. The programs may be coordinated between a nurse care manager, clinical team leader, peer support specialist, health home coordinator, psychiatric consultant, and a medical consultant.
Dr. Wendy Wolf, president and CEO of the Maine Health Access Foundation, said recent research shows that Maine people with serious mental illness have higher rates of premature death due to undetected or poorly treated physical health conditions. She said the grants will seek to address this program.
“Through this new grant program,” Wolf said in a prepared statement, “mental health providers will team up with primary care professionals to ensure that people with mental and behavioral health problems receive coordinated, comprehensive high quality care for their mental and physical health conditions.”
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