SC Discretionary Funding Fiscal Year 2023

The Catawba Nation in partnership with South Carolina's 988 Lifeline Crisis Center, will establish its 988NativeHealth Program to serve Catawba adults who are in crisis and struggling with mental health and substance use disorders. We are known for our work to rebuild community and for providing programs and services that reinforce our belief that mind, body, and spirit are all connected to health and well-being. However, the Catawba Nation has no programs that directly connect it to South Carolina's 24-7, 988 Lifeline Crisis Center or that provide it's crisis counselors, local police, and direct care providers with training that specifically addresses the needs of our tribal citizens. The establishment of 988NativeHealth will provide the opportunity for us to collaborate. Full abstract in attachments.

The Clemson University: Upstate South Carolina Mental Health and Sport Initiative brings Mental Health First Aid, NAMI Ending the Silence and supplemental mental health awareness training to athletes, parents and coaches of youth sport clubs in Upstate SC. The program will change the culture around mental health in youth sport by increasing mental health knowledge, reducing stigma, encouraging help-seeking behavior and promoting improved mental health. This initiative will serve 1500 individuals in 5 years, with 150 youth athletes receiving NAMI Ending the Silence training and 150 parents and coaches from the sport clubs receiving Mental Health First Aid Training each year. Additionally, all participants will be provided access to a mental health paraprofessional embedded within the sport club and to referrals to professional mental health care providers in Upstate SC for further support. The initiative will be brought to teams of 13-19-year-old female and male athletes from Upstate SC. The adult participants in the program will be coaches of the selected youth teams or parents with athletes on those teams, with the aim of having as many athletes as possible with at least one parent involved. Additional demographics will reflect the diversity found amongst the youth across the counties of Upstate SC, including a variety of races, ethnicities and socioeconomic statuses, with special focus in the project on ensuring mental health support for underserved populations vulnerable to health disparities. In an effort to continue to bring the youth sport community of Upstate SC together in a unified way to address the challenges of mental health in the Upstate, an Upstate South Carolina Mental Health and Sport Coalition will be formed with stakeholders from the sport clubs, Clemson University and mental health care providers in the area involved. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: Program goals and objectives are designed to: • Train individuals within youth sport clubs in Upstate South Carolina (USC) to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental disorders by providing evidence-based mental health awareness training (MHAT) to athletes, coaches and parents. • Improve the culture surrounding mental health (MH) in youth sport clubs in USC by increasing athlete, coach and parent knowledge about MH, and improving attitudes that promote recognition and/or appropriate help-seeking behaviors. • Increase the capacity of youth sport clubs in USC to assist with the improvement of the overall mental health status of its members. • Increase the capacity of youth sport clubs in USC to engage and educate individuals about resources available in the community for individuals with a mental health disorder. • Increase the involvement of youth sport clubs in USC in long-term sustainability of providing MHAT through youth sport clubs.

The SC 988 Comprehensive System of CARE (SC 988) Cooperative Agreement will further build SC mental health crisis intervention infrastructure, with 988 being the central piece in response, intervention, and follow-up during a mental health crisis. This infrastructure will result in increased in-state answer rates, improved key performance indicators, and increased capacity to meet 988 crisis contact demand. These activities will ensure SC is part of the unified 988 response across the US. The COVID-19 pandemic is predicted to not only worsen mental health symptoms for those living with serious mental illness but may also lead to an increase in new mental health patients. SC EMS call volume for self-harm has increased 53% when comparing 2020 vs. 2021. Other major issues include identifying a decision tree between 988, SCDMH, 911, and other partners such SC Department of Alcohol and Other Drugs (DAODAS) for continuity of care. Aim 1: Enhance workforce capacity through recruitment, hiring, and training of local 988 staff and adding an additional call center in SC The SC 988 grant will help reach the goal of at least 90% of total 988 calls answered in SC by June 15, 2022 by: 1. Expanding the 988 crisis center workforce by hiring more MHAGC Call Center staff for 988 operations. 2. Developing an additional 988 call center for SC to increase capacity in SC through SCDMH. 3. Building text and message answer capacity. Aim 2: Build SC's 988 Crisis Center's response infrastructure that is needed for the successful implementation of 988, including areas around crisis response, intervention, and follow-up. In order to build SC's capacity to implement 988, the following infrastructure activities will occur: 1. Train 8 new MHAGC and 5 MC workforce staff members to better prepare them to work with high-risk populations. 2. Facilitate a 988 Advisory Board to coordinate infrastructure development between all partners. 3 Evaluate current activities and develop a plan for implementing referral and follow-up services. 4. The Program Director (PD), Project Coordinator (PC) and Evaluator will immediately start work with the 988 Advisory Board partners to ensure required data is collected. 5. The 988 Advisory Board will work with the PD and PC to develop a sustainability plan.

Union Cherokee Cares is a joint initiative between Union and Cherokee counties in rural South Carolina, service gaps such as, 1) access to behavioral health, 2) identifying and referring those with high rates of alcohol and drug use, and 3) persistent mental health problems that are not recognized. for Individuals to receive mental health awareness training (e.g., Youth and Adult Mental Health First Aid) will be adults who work with and/or interact with adults, youth, and young adults ages 16-24 to include those in college/university-based settings. The South Carolina (S.C.) catchment area will be those who live or work in two under resourced, upstate counties: Cherokee County and Union County. These adjacent counties are mainly rural in nature with few resources for early identification and referral for services. In both counties, there is only one public mental health agency and one alcohol and drug abuse authority that provides prevention, early intervention, and treatment. Each county has one school district with 8,605 K-12 students in Cherokee County and 4,017 in Union County which will help streamline training for the approximate 1127 teachers/staff in the 15 elementary, 4 middle and 3 high schools. The counties have three local colleges/universities that that will also partner on this initiative. This includes Limestone University a four-year private college (N=3200), and the University of South Carolina (USC)-Union a fast-growing two-year public university (N=6500).

The University of South Carolina Upstate (USC Upstate) requests funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s GLS Campus Suicide Prevention Program to implement a new three-tier health and wellness program called Spartans Helping Spartans (SHS). The target population is first-year, first-generation, Pell-eligible, and transfer students. These target populations align with a campus-wide strategic retention initiative titled “Reimagine Upstate .”In South Carolina, age-adjusted suicide rates have steadily increased over the past decade, from 13.5 deaths per 100,000 (637) in 2010 to 16.2 deaths per 100,000 (852) in 2019. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the USC-Upstate Counseling Center has seen an increasing number of students seeking counseling services. Additionally, in recent years, USC Upstate has seen an increase in students seeking withdrawals for extenuating circumstances and submissions of incident/student of concern reports. USC Upstate will develop a comprehensive, collaborative, well-coordinated, and evidence-based approach to enhance USC Upstate mental health infrastructure for all students, including those at risk for suicide, depression, serious mental illness (SMI)/serious emotional disturbances (SED), and/or substance use disorders that can lead to school dropout. The goal of SHS includes (1) increasing engagement between Counseling Services and the student population, (2) developing early identification and primary prevention services for at-risk students, (3) increasing staffing for mental health services and preventative intervention, and (4) improve the relationship with community service providers. The desired SHS outcomes are to increase student connectedness and foster belonging, reduce negative attitudes about mental health and substance use disorders and encourage help-seeking behavior.

The EVALE Initiative will equip 830 community members with Mental Health First Aid certification. These community members will be from the veterans service population, the law enforcement population and the general adult population.

Abstract Building Communities of Recovery (BCOR) Faces and Voices of Recovery TriCounty, Inc. dba FAVOR Piedmont Faces and Voices of Recovery TriCounty (dba FAVOR Piedmont) proposes to connect and mobilize Certified Peer Support Specialists (CPSS) delivering PRSS and RSS to underserved populations in under resourced agencies, private treatment providers, treatment centers, emergency departments, recovery houses, and recovery community organizations (RCOs). For more than two years, FAVOR Piedmont has presented a weekly virtual Peer Support for Peer Support (PS4PS) program that connects CPSS around the state with free relational support and continuing education with subject matter experts. An important lesson learned is that many of our peerforce are filling gaps in the continuum of care for others while, themselves, receive only clinical supervision and no Peer-to-Peer Supervision. In our Building Communities of Recovery project FAVOR Piedmont is prepared to provide evidence based, trauma informed Peer-to-Peer Supervision to individuals in these various settings where this essential support is inadequate or non-existent. FAVOR Piedmont provides off-reservation PRSS to our recognized Indigenous population – Catawba citizens -- and is a contributing member of the Catawba Drug Action Task Force. Our proposed harm reduction services of opioid overdose reversal training and weekly Narcan distribution on the reservation saves lives. Funding for these initiatives by the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services (DAODAS) ends September 2022. Catawbas and other natives also receive culturally congruent recovery support at our facility through a weekly off-reservation native American 12-step-based Wellbriety meeting. The South Carolina Association of Recovery Residence (SCARR) reports that fewer than 60 beds are available in certified houses. In communities devoid of adequate recovery housing, individuals or churches take the initiative to meet this essential need. With BCOR funding, in our Recovery Housing Initiative, we will discover and collaborate with these providers and develop a resource directory and referral system. For more than eight years, FAVOR Piedmont has provided PRSS to criminal justice involved individuals in the 16th and 6th Judicial Circuit Adult Drug Courts. With BCOR funding we will be able to continue this unfunded, unsustainable program we provide weekly individual peer recovery coaching sessions, weekly peer-led recovery groups, and treatment team staffing. Working with priority population referrals by Rock Hill Treatment Specialists, an opioid treatment provider (OTP) we will provide PRSS, resource brokering with warm handoffs where possible, and SUD and MH counseling.