Awards of Excellence in Behavioral Health

Outstanding clinicians and treatment teams that care for individuals with mental illness and addictions, as well as advocates, leaders and organizations in the behavioral health community will be recognized during the National Council’s Celebration of Excellence Concert & Awards Dinner on March 8 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. The ceremony honors the achievements of those who have inspired others and promote wellness to build healthy communities.

Some of this year’s honorees and their awards will include:

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center (NFMMC), Niagara Falls, NY, for Integrated Care in the Aging Population—NFMMC created an integrated care program for those over 55. Behavioral health services are taken to community sites for staff and physicians to talk to patients about whole health. Now in its second year, the program has screened over 1,400 patients during their primary care visits and referred over 130 to behavioral health services.

Missouri Coalition for Community Behavioral Healthcare (MCCBH), Jefferson City, MO, for Science into Practice: Systems Change and Best Practices—MCCBH has collaborated with Missouri HealthNet and Missouri’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Use to analyze data among vulnerable high utilizers with complicated medical histories to improve the quality of care and lower costs for 250,000 consumers. Data analysis showed a 30% decrease in emergency room and hospital admissions and an approximate savings of $19 million achieved across inpatient, outpatient and pharmacy costs.

Addiction Treatment Services (ATS), Traverse City, MI, Champions of Excellence—ATS provides evidence-based, gender specific treatment for addiction, clinical depression, severe anxiety and emotional trauma for underserved residents of northern Michigan. In 2015, during its strategic planning process, ATS engaged in an organizationwide effort to enhance and standardize its training and workforce development offerings. All 70 staff committed to completing one or more of six Certificates of Excellence focused on mental health, addiction and leadership development.

Stout Street Integrated Health Center (SSIHC), Denver, for Integration & Wellness—SSIHC, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, integrates a unique model of patient-centered care. It provides trauma-informed medical and behavioral healthcare, addiction treatment and housing to homeless and at-risk individuals and families. The Center serves 10,000 people each year and shelters more than 2,500 households.

Family & Children’s Services–Women in Recovery (WIR), Tulsa, OK, for Excellence in Addictions Treatment Innovation—The WIR treatment program began in 2009 to help reduce Oklahoma’s dubious distinction of having the highest rate of female incarceration in the nation and provide an alternative to prison for women with addictions. WIR has consistently achieved its primary goal of reducing the number of women with drug-related offenses from being sent to prison since its creation.

The Providence Center, Providence, RI, for Excellence in Behavioral Healthcare Management—The Providence Center offers programs serving adults, children and families with substance use, mental health treatment and overall wellness. In 2011 Rhode Island was one of the first of two states in the country to implement the health homes program, an initiative providing more effective integrated care to Medicaid participants with serious mental illness. The program demonstrated such strong results that the center expanded its integrated health program to other family medical centers in the state.

Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS), Charlotte, for Excellence in Health Information Technology—CHS’ telepsychiatry and Patient Placement program provided psychiatric care and inpatient placement for 4,606 patients in 2014 and 8,118 patients in 2015. In 2014 CHS created a Centralized Patient Placement department to find placement for psychiatric patients in emergency departments throughout CHS’s 19 emergency departments in the state. Due to the partnership, the average length of stay in their acute care emergency departments has been reduced by over 50% since the summer of 2013.

View the complete list of honorees here: https://www.thenationalcouncil.org/2016-award-honorees/.