OMAHA, NE / AGILITYPR.NEWS / May 05, 2020 / CenterPointe and Lutheran Family Services awarded CCBHC grant from SAMHSA

CenterPointe and Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska were recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), to operate a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) at their outpatient clinics in Lincoln. This is a two-year grant totaling $2 million per year per agency.

The purpose of the CCBHC expansion grant program is to increase access to and improve the quality of community mental and substance use disorder treatment services through the expansion of services. The expanded services include crisis response, screening and assessment for mental health, substance use, and physical health issues for children, adolescents, and adults. The grant also allows a significant increase of peer support positions as well as care managers who can coordinate services for each individual.

Collectively the two agencies currently serve nearly 6,000 people in Lincoln who are living with serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. Nearly all of those served (90%) have co-occurring substance use disorders. This CCBHC grant allows CenterPointe and Lutheran Family Services to build upon decades of providing award-winning integrated substance use disorder and mental health care by expanding capacity for primary health care screening, crisis services, treatment, and wellness programs for our Lincoln community and new enrollees. The expansion of services will add 17 new staff at CenterPointe and 16 at LFS’s Destination Care integrated healthcare facility at 23rd and “O” Streets.

CenterPointe CEO and President, Topher Hansen said “This has been an organizational goal for over a decade, and is our next step toward being a holistic, integrated health clinic.” The grant period began May 1, 2020 and will run through April 30, 2022.

Stacy Martin, President and CEO of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska (LFS) said, “As one of the state’s largest health and human service organizations, LFS is in a unique position to help pioneer the service expansion strategies of CCBHCs with our long-time and valued partner, Center Pointe. Thanks to this grant, we will have new opportunities to also deepen our partnership with Bluestem Health and to make and measure transformational change for people in Lincoln and Lancaster County who face our communities’ most pressing challenges.”