Representing the gold standard for mental health and substance use treatment, these clinics partner with designated collaborating organizations (DCOs) — public schools, peer support services, law enforcement agencies, mobile units, and other care providers — to facilitate integrated, cost-effective, and coordinated care focused on the specific needs of their communities and aligned with strict service requirements.
But to do these well and ensure clients receive the best quality care possible, CCBHCs and their partners can’t just conduct business as usual, with additive referrals layering care on top of ineffective systems. Instead, CCBHCs need technology capable of helping facilitate integrated, coordinated, and person-centered care and more effectively achieving the goals of the CCBHC care delivery model.
Here are four ways an advanced technology solution can be a difference-maker for CCBHCs and their DCOs.
A core tenet of the CCBHC model is providing individualized, targeted care to all behavioral health care clients. According to a 2023 study, such person-centered care reduces readmission rates, cuts down on the number of unnecessary medical tests performed, and helps clients more effectively share their physical and mental health needs.
But in a coordinated medical system in which CCBHCs partner with DCOs to achieve this targeted care, collaboration can easily break down when providers don’t have the integrated systems needed to provide whole health care with a focus on positive outcomes.
Built for the CCBHC care delivery model, Core Solutions’ Cx360 EHR enables effective, secure communication between providers and the clients they support. The platform has a coordinated scheduling system — with communication and notification features — to ensure all providers can stay current on a client’s care journey. Through role-based permissions, CCBHCs and DCOs can access treatment plans, progress notes, assessment results, and more, all in a single platform, to better ensure optimal care delivery and coordination.
The Cx360 platform also heads off another issue that can impede effective individualized care: lack of client and family education. Without educational materials and behavioral health care resources, many clients will continue to struggle to understand their care options and engage with providers.
Core Solutions’ secure platform enables CCBHCs and DCOs to send educational resources, videos, and follow-up messages, among other resources, to help clients understand their treatment plans, identify symptoms, and build trust with their providers. Core is directly connected to the NIH Library of Medicine so the educational resources provided are current and based on clinical research.
CCBHCs emerged in response to the need to make behavioral health care and peer support services accessible to more people — regardless of their location, age, or technical capability. Currently, around 56% of adults with mental health conditions aren’t receiving treatment, according to Mental Health America. And Lifepoint reports that about 60% of U.S. residents live in areas where care for mental health is in short supply.
Increasing the number of CCBHC and DCO providers available and the flexibility of service offerings is key to fixing this accessibility issue — and the Cx360 platform is helping make significant strides in both these areas.
The platform’s telehealth features put power in clients’ hands, enabling them to schedule virtual visits on their own time and easily access session notifications through their preferred communication channels. Mobile capabilities allow providers to securely work with session reports, progress tracking, and client notes, even when they’re offline.
These types of flexible features broaden access to peer support services and behavioral health care, particularly for clients who live in rural areas, have mobility challenges, or reside in locations with provider shortages.
CCBHCs and DCOs are tasked with collectively providing care to historically underserved communities and individuals. But to meet their client population’s needs, they first must understand them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that community needs assessments are essential to comprehending how policies, systems, and environmental concerns affect certain individuals and populations. When CCBHCs and DCOs better understand their clients holistically, they can make more informed staffing, scheduling, and service-based decisions to support them more effectively.
This is particularly important given that many healthcare trials and research have historically omitted marginalized populations. In 2020, for example, nearly 74% of participants in FDA drug trials were white, one study reports. When providers make clinical decisions based on disparate data, they cannot effectively target their care to meet specific community needs.
This is where technology like Core Clinician Assist: HRSN Tracking can make all the difference. This artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool tracks and reviews provider and caregiver notes to identify health-related social needs (HRSN) patterns across client populations. It helps providers better understand barriers to behavioral health care access, population-centric care gaps, and proactive interventions.
With this data, CCBHCs and DCOs can tailor and align their care to better meet their clients’ specific behavioral health needs.
Underserved populations are not only at risk for mental health and substance use disorders that can escalate quickly, but also crisis situations like run-ins with the law and incarceration. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, mental illness is twice as prevalent in jails as in the overall adult population. Strong coordination of various providers — including crisis intervention, stabilization, and response teams — is therefore particularly critical to the CCBHC model during emergency situations. CCBHCs are required to offer 24/7 crisis behavioral health services, and most partner with first responder teams to streamline immediate crisis intervention during these scenarios.
When lives are on the line, clear communication and effective handoffs are vital. The Cx360 platform facilitates this efficient collaboration, enabling teams to quickly triage clients through customized, integrated workflows and fast call routing. CCBHCs and DCOs can also set up communication channels through text, web chat, or video calls to engage clients in the ways they prefer during crisis situations.
Cx360 aligns with crisis care management standards, and with AI-backed data-gathering and assessment tools, providers across the care continuum can identify ways to improve their workflows, better understand at-risk communities, and prevent future crisis situations or negative outcomes.
The success of the CCBHC model depends heavily on the delivery of care that meets individuals where and when they need it. But to truly be effective, CCBHC and DCO teams need the infrastructure that enables a more complete understanding of the populations served, full visibility into the care journey, communication and coordination across all providers, and fast crisis response.
As an advanced EHR solution, the Cx360 platform supports all these areas and fosters client-centric approaches for an altogether better care delivery system.
Ready to learn how the platform would benefit your CCBHC? Contact us today.