On New York University Week: The more people with access to mental health services, the better.
Amanda Mauri, assistant professor and faculty fellow at the School of Global Public Health, discusses the rise in care.
Amanda Mauri is an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow at the New York University School of Global Public Health. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on assessing variations in access to community behavioral health care and crisis services. She is particularly interested in the implementation and impact of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic initiatives, with a special focus on those related to Medicaid. Her scholarly work has appeared in Health Affairs, the Milbank Quarterly, and JAMA Health Forum. Amanda holds dual Ph.D. degrees in Health Policy and Political Science from the University of Michigan.
A Growing US Mental Health Safety Net
The federal government has allocated over $10 billion to increase the number of certified community behavioral health clinics, or CCBHCs. These clinics are a subset of community behavioral health providers required to fulfill federal criteria for delivering a broad spectrum of mental health and substance use services across nine categories. Since CCBHCs have to provide care regardless of ability to pay and Medicaid is their largest payor, they might be a way to increase the availability of behavioral health care for people who are uninsured, underinsured, and low income – populations with high burdens of mental health and substance use disorders.
We’re digging into this investment to see what it’s achieving. So far, we’ve found that more people have access to a CCBHC. Back in 2016 when the first clinics were designated, only about 5% of the U.S. population and counties resided in a CCBHC service area. Today, it’s jumped to over 60% of the population and around 40% of counties.
But the big question is, do CCBHCs offer increased access to care, enhanced quality of treatment, or improved health outcomes relative to other outpatient behavioral health providers? Some early signs are good, especially with services for mental health crises — a particularly important service category given the rise in the number of people dying by suicide and attention toward alternatives to police responding to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Indeed, our research shows that CCBHC initiatives might increase the availability of crisis services around the country.
CCHBCs have been a cornerstone of bipartisan strategies to increase access to behavioral health care in the United States. Overall, our research suggests that CCBHCs remain a promising strategy to improve behavioral health care availability, particularly for disadvantaged populations, and we’re excited to continue studying our country’s growing mental health safety net.
Read More:
[Psychiatry Online] – Characterizing Crisis Services Offered by Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics: Results From a National Survey
[JAMA Network] – Proportion of US Counties and Population Served by Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
