KS Discretionary Funding Fiscal Year 2023

Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) currently partners with three National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (NSPL) contact centers for 24/7 coverage specific to 988 calls, chats, and texts. Reports have shown an increase in 988 services since the implementation date of July 16th, 2022. In collaboration with KDADS, the Kansas crisis call centers will have measurable improvements to the in-state answering rate for calls, texts, and chats as well as workforce development. The NSPL contact centers in Kansas are Johnson County Community Mental Health (JCCMH), Sedgwick County (in which Comcare responds to NSPL calls), and Kansas Suicide Prevention HQ (KSPHQ). Healthsource Integrated Services (HIS) is currently a statewide back-up contact center and Wyandot Behavioral Health Network Inc. is in the process of gaining certification. Currently, the average in-state call answer rate is above the targeted rate of 90%. However, the chat and text in-state answer rate has stayed at 60% for April and May 2023. Challenges to increasing chat and text answer rates are primarily related to staffing and technology. To increase in-state chat and text answer rate, Comcare, JCCMH and KSPHQ will need to increase the number of volunteers, staff counselors, and peers available. As volume and staffing increases, so too does the need for increased supervision of volunteer, staff counselors, and peers for the purposes of support and quality assurance.

The goals of Integrating Mental and Behavioral Health Resources into the Justice System of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, KS are: to 1) decrease the number of jail bookings for adults who come into contact with law enforcement due to their behavioral health symptoms, and 2) decrease the number of youth involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The purpose of the project is to reduce the rate of behavioral health issues as a causative factor among adults becoming involved in the justice system and youth in the foster care system. Our regional Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic will implement the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model of organizational and clinical practice.

Our project will provide mental health awareness training to the campus community at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) located in Edmond, Oklahoma including staff, faculty, students, and their families with the intent of providing mental health support and linkages to services for students 18-25 attending the university. We will specifically target campus community members in Housing, Veteran's Support Services, the Nursing program, and campus and local police. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2018), fifty percent of mental illness begins by age 14 and three-quarters begins by age 25. According to the Fall 2019 enrollment data, 77.9% of the UCO students are between the ages of 18-25. Recognizing the signs and symptoms of mental illness and connecting a person to services early in their life can help reduce the severity of their illness. The University of Central Oklahoma Center for Counseling and Wellbeing (CCWB) has agreed to be our collaborative partner in this grant project to respond to mental health issues. DCCCA will partner with the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) to provide in-person and virtual mental health awareness training to the campus community utilizing the evidence-based curriculum Mental Health First Aid. This curriculum teaches participants how to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness, identify resources in the community, and emphasizes de-escalation techniques. DCCCA has over 40 years of experience in providing trainings to community partners related to mental health and substance use. In Oklahoma DCCCA has been providing substance use prevention education and resources for over 5 years as a sub-grantee of SAMHSA through opioid misuse prevention grants through the Oklahoma Department of Mental and Substance Abuse Services. Additionally, the designated Project Director has been a certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor for 1 year. The University of Central Oklahoma Center for Counseling and Wellbeing is our primary referral source for this project. They have many programs and services for students and staff including counseling, self-help networks and peer health leaders that are an integral part of this project. The total number of people trained, trainings held, and referrals by trained participants will be tracked and reported. The Project Director, Prevention Specialist, and 2-3 Staff members at the CCWB will form the Mental Health Aid Advisory Group. This group will be responsible for ensuring implementation throughout the grant.

Horizons Mental Health Center (Horizons) in Hutchinson, KS will utilize MHAT grant to train individuals using the Mental Health First Aid program that will include but will not be limited to law enforcement, first responders, EMS, fire, hospital, and county correctional workers. The geographic catchment area is Pratt, Barber, Harper, Kingman, and Reno counties in Kansas. The population of focus for those being trained is the general public. By equipping community providers with the resources to recognize mental health behavior when they respond to calls for aid, they can respond appropriately to an individual with a mental health condition or crisis. The overall goal of Horizon's Mental Health First Aid Program is to increase the number of people trained in identifying and assisting individuals experiencing mental health disturbance or illnesses. The program's purpose is to ultimately shift agency cultures and encourage first responders to develop relationships and identify opportunities to steer individuals toward support and services before crises occur. The program objectives include increasing the mental health literacy of those trained, create educational material for the population of focus and collaborate with other community organizations to leverage additional resources. The long-term goal of Horizon's project is to reduce the number of people with a mental health issues who have contact with first responders from going to jail, the ER or continue to struggle without the opportunity to receive professional services. Horizons will be focusing on training law enforcement, first responders, EMS, fire, dispatch staff, and county correctional workers, but will make the course available to other organization that would like to offer MHFA training to their employees.