Date: October 2024 – January 2025, from 3:00 - 4:30 PM ET

Looking to understand the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model?  Is your health center interested in partnering with a local CCBHC to support and expand your services? Apply to NACHC’s Learning Collaborative to learn some tools to help you do that!

From the National Council of Mental Wellbeing 2024 CCBHC Impact report:

CCBHCs work closely with primary care partners, using multiple strategies to coordinate and integrate care — with the result that access to primary care is increasing among individuals served.

• Half of CCBHCs exceed minimum requirements by making comprehensive primary care available on-site.
• 76% of CCBHCs reported that referrals to primary care have increased since becoming a CCBHC, including 30% reporting that referrals have increased by 20% or more.

NACHC is hosting its first Learning Collaborative for Health Center staff on partnering with a CCBHC. This Collaborative will focus on learning the opportunities for new workflows and activities between FQHCs and CCBHCs.

This is a great opportunity to learn about the various pathways to partnering with a CCBHC and understand the scope of services to coordinate care and develop referral workflows.

Overview

This Learning Collaborative is designed for health center staff focused on integrating primary care and behavioral health services, which may include leadership, administrative, physical, and mental health care providers. The Collaborative will engage health centers in designing a personal project to support creating a partnership with a local CCBHC provider. Each participating health center will walk away with a care coordination agreement ready to be implemented!

The goals of this Learning Collaborative are to:

• Identify the different opportunities for FQHCs to partner with CCBHCs to support the integration of primary care and behavioral health.
• Outline ways FQHCs can create a collaborative partnership with CCBHCs.
• Discover and implement changes that assist with building care coordination and referral pathways with CCBHCs.
• Have Fun!

The Learning Collaborative will convene six times between October 2024 and January 2025. Each workshop will also include policy updates from NACHC staff on relevant mental health topics.

Participant Expectations

• Attend and participate in all five sessions.
• Complete all pre-work and homework assignments in between workshops. 
• Design a CCBHC-focused project of your choosing. 

As an added benefit for participation, there will be an optional office hour to support projects and additional questions.

Workshop Dates

• Welcome Hour

Wednesday, October 9, 2024, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET
This kick-off session will introduce the learning collaborative's goals, format, and expectations. Participants will be provided with a brief overview of the CCBHC program and provided time to meet other participating health centers.

• Session #1:  Understanding Care Coordination Requirements in CCBHCs

Wednesday, October 23, 2024, 3:00 pm – 4:30 PM ET
This session will review the foundation and SAMHSA levels of integrated care. Participants will learn about the CCBHC criteria for care coordination, primary care monitoring, and screening requirements. 

• Session #2: Considerations for Pursuing CCBHC Partnerships/Dual Certification

Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 3:00 pm – 4:30 PM ET
This session will illustrate key considerations around the scope of services, administrative and financial needs, and other cultural changes when pursuing CCBHC partnerships, arrangements, or certification.

• Office Hour (Optional)

November – Day and Time to be Determined
This session will allow participants to engage with speakers to better understand CCBHC care coordination and partnerships, which will further the development of each participant project or care agreement template.

• Session #3: Choosing a Co-location or Dual Certified Pathway with CCBHCs

Wednesday, December 11, 2024, 3:00 pm – 4:30 PM ET
This session will present case studies of co-located and dual-certified FQHCs and CCBHCs. It will also illustrate the workflows and impact of team-based care between primary care and behavioral health services.

• Session #4: Opportunities as a Designated Collaborating Organization (DCO)

Wednesday, January 8, 2025, 3:00 pm – 4:30 PM ET
This workshop will be used to understand how to create metrics to make sure the process is achieving the intended outcomes.  Participants will also learn how to perform continuous improvement using the insights gained from data collection and how to present their results to colleagues and leadership.

• Health Center Care Project Showcase

Wednesday, January 22, 2025, 3:00 pm – 4:15 PM ET
This final event will provide participants who complete all elements of the course with an opportunity to showcase their process improvement or care coordination agreements project summary, including results, lessons learned, and next steps. Participants can invite their supervisors, colleagues, and Primary Care Association (PCA) colleagues to listen to their presentations and celebrate the work they have accomplished.

Faculty

Faculty for these workshops include staff from:

• National Association of Community Health Centers
• To be updated as speakers confirm

Requirements

To apply, a participant must meet the following requirements:

• Health Center staff have a general understanding of the CCBHC model.
• The Health Center is actively pursuing behavioral health partnerships.
• Commit to attending all six workshops.
• Commit to completing the relevant homework activities.
• Have the support of your supervisor/leadership.

The deadline to apply is September 30, 2024.

For more information, please contact Erin Prendergast at eprendergast@nachc.org.