Module 3: Program Clearinghouse

The HRSA Federal Office of Rural Health Policy has funded several programs in rural areas to implement mental health programs as part of the 330A Outreach Authority program. This program focuses on expanding access to healthcare services in rural areas.

Examples of current 330A Outreach Authority grantees and other organizations that have developed promising programs designed to improve mental health in a rural community are provided below. Evidence-based and promising service models for improving mental health are available in Module 2.

• Arkansas Rural Health Partnership (ARHP)
  Synopsis: ARHP is a healthcare network comprising rural hospital members, medical teaching institutions, and Federally Qualified Health Centers. ARHP works to ensure access to quality and localized healthcare throughout rural Arkansas. One of ARHP's focus areas is behavioral health initiatives in which they support individuals experiencing mental health and substance use disorders.
• Families Plus
  Synopsis: This mental health specialty clinic began in 1998 and, after receiving a federal grant in 2015, expanded its services while partnering with other organizations. The goal of Families Plus is to improve access to preventive healthcare, provide wraparound services, and offer mental health treatment for children with complex needs.
• Health Care Partners (HCP) Foundation
  Synopsis: The HCP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to improve the well-being of people who are incarcerated in jail systems in Colorado. The HCP Foundation provides telemedicine, telepsychiatry, and telecounseling for people who are incarcerated. The use of telecounseling enables providers to address the root cause of problems that often lead to incarceration.
• J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital (now Penn Highlands Huntingdon)
  Synopsis: J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital, in partnership with J.C. Blair Medical Services and UPMC Pinnacle, established a consortium of clinical partners. This project integrates behavioral health services into primary care clinics in rural Pennsylvania.
• Lac qui Parle Health Network (now River Valley Health Network)
  Synopsis: This collaborative is working with three hospitals and clinics and one behavioral health provider in southwestern Minnesota to create an integration plan for behavioral health and primary care services. One of the program goals is to implement a flow chart providers can use to support patients experiencing mental health conditions. The program is also working to establish care coordinator positions to help patients manage their care plans.
• Project Rural Recovery
  Synopsis: Project Rural Recovery offers integrated primary care, mental health, and substance use treatment services with four mobile units in rural counties across Tennessee. The mobile units are staffed and operated by dual certified nurse practitioners, a mental health therapist, a medical assistant, and a case manager. This staffing model may vary unit to unit dependent on need.
• Sinnissippi Centers, Inc.
  Synopsis: This is a program consortium made up of agencies collaborating to improve children's mental health. The consortium uses the care coordination model and Parent Cafés (support groups) to help children and their families access mental health services.
• Tanner Health System
  Synopsis: Willowbrooke, a center within the Tanner Health System, provides mental healthcare services to students through the local school system by offering youth Mental Health First Aid trainings and access to school counselors.