Strengthening Our Safety Net: CCBHCs and Crisis Care

The success of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has reinforced the need for efficient crisis care in all communities, helping us understand how valuable and necessary crisis services are. In just two years, more than 10 million people reached out to the 988 Lifeline through calls, texts and chats, quickly exceeding what many people expected.

That demand also has exposed the lack of available crisis resources. With the 988 Lifeline serving as a gateway to services, communities need to ensure people have paths to mental health and substance use treatment and care.

But in many cases, those paths aren’t available. So, how do we build them?

The Role of CCBHCs in Crisis Services and Systems, a new white paper by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s Medical Director Institute, outlines best practices for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs), crisis providers, local systems, state authorities and funders.

This report from the Medical Director Institute is essential reading for CCBHC leadership and managers and for crisis system stakeholders in communities with a CCBHC. It dives deep into financing, explaining the role that the prospective payment system plays in delivering services and recruiting and retaining staff. It also provides detailed information from three perspectives, to help people and organizations understand:

·       The crisis-related requirements and services that CCBHCs must provide.

·       Innovative crisis capabilities, services and supports CCBHCs can provide, most of which are not supportable through traditional fee-for-service health care financing.

·       How communities can use a CCBHC as a foundation and a springboard for expanding crisis services to meet their needs.

Rising to the Occasion

National Council members are the backbone of mental health and substance use care in so many communities. They are meeting growing demand for services among people of all ages and backgrounds.

National Council members that become CCBHCs can do even more to meet that demand. That’s because CCBHC status gives them the flexibility to vastly broaden the scope of the services they provide and the funding mechanism to support the expansion of services. Because CCBHCs are required to have partnerships with emergency rooms, primary care and law enforcement, they naturally develop deeper relationships with other agencies trying to meet the needs of people in their communities.

CCBHCs are required to provide:

·       Someone to contact (emergency crisis intervention services).

·       Someone to respond (crisis intervention and 24/7 mobile response).

·       A safe place for help (walk-in urgent care and crisis centers with observation).

But what does that look like in practice? Those services include:

·       Trauma-informed care.

·       Suicide prevention.

·       Overdose prevention and medication.

·       Expansion of peer support services across the health care continuum.

·       Care coordination.

Resources are Available A comprehensive crisis care system is an integrated network of providers, processes and services. Increasingly, CCBHCs play a crucial role in that network. Download our new report today to discover how your organization can broaden crisis services through the CCBHC model. And please let me know what you think of the new report. Was it useful? Did we miss anything? What else do you need to know?

Don’t hesitate to reach out to me or to our wonderful CCBHC team at CCBHC@TheNationalCouncil.org. You also can check out the following pages for more information about CCBHCs:

·       Our CCBHC Success Center has a trove of valuable resources.

·       The CCBHC-E National Training and Technical Assistance Center has resources related to certification, sustainability and use of evidence-based practices.

·       The CCBHC State Technical Assistance Center can help you learn more about implementing and strengthening the CCBHC model in your state.

·       And our 2024 CCBHC Impact Report explains in detail what CCBHCs have been able to accomplish through their vast reach.