Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Project
A research team from VTIPG and VT’s Center for Public Health Practice and Research (College of Veterinary Medicine) continued to provide ongoing data management and outcomes and process evaluation services for the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) project for New River Valley Health Services (NRVCS) this past fall. The CCBHC project targets adults with serious mental illness, substance abuse or co-occurring disorders and children with severe emotional disturbance. The project seeks to expand capacity and provide more comprehensive care to this population of NRVCS adults and youth who are medically under-or-uninsured.
Funded by the national Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Agency (SAMHSA), NRVCS’ two-year grant was awarded in fall 2018. During that period, the VT research team has assisted NRVCS in collecting data and processing more than 4,000 surveys concerning more than 1,700 individuals receiving expanded services supported by the grant. The team has delivered regular activity and quarterly updates to NRVCS’ staff, two annual reports with summary presentations to the NRVCS grant advisory group and agency board and is now working on a final report summarizing NRVCS SAMHSA activity, compliance rates and outcome data.
NRVCS was awarded a second SAMHSA grant in May, 2020, which enabled expansion of telehealth services that have been particularly needed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Service delivery and data collection for that initiative began on June 1. NRVCS requested that the VTIPG research team serve (remain) as external evaluators for the new effort. As a result, the Institute research group has provided data collection assistance and evaluation services for both grants throughout the summer and fall months, processing another 900 surveys concerning 600 new participants for the telehealth initiative. To streamline data collection processes for the second grant, the team also spent the fall semester developing a digital version of SAMSHA’s data collection instrument, which will be available to NRVCS in January, 2021.
In addition to NRVCS’ two SAMSHA grants, Mount Rogers Community Services (MRCS) located in Wytheville, VA approached VTIPG to serve as external evaluators for its recently launched Community Behavioral Health Clinic program (MRCS received a 2-year SAMHSA grant in 2020). Part of the work on this effort has included providing capacity building for the grant’s start-up period including, advising on how to set up data tracking systems as well as other processes for meeting grant requirements. The team has also provided training sessions and developed materials and videos for staff on the grant’s data collection tool, data collection management, grant compliance and reporting requirements. The study team is also working to develop strategies for expanding the MRCS CCBHC model with a goal of reaching a total of 3,500 individuals during the 2-year grant period.
The Research Team
Serving as the CCBHC projects’ Principal Investigator (PI), VTIPG Associate Director, Mary Beth Dunkenberger will continue directing the data management and outcomes evaluation efforts for all three grants. She is joined by Co-PI , Sophie Wenzel, associate director of the CPHPR who is spearheading the process evaluation element of this work. Other members of the research team include VTIPG Research Associate, Liz Allen, who manages data collection, all grant compliance and outcomes reporting as well as managing the data processing team members, profiled below.
The Research Team's Data Collection and Processing Group
The data group, with support from graduate assistants Katie Hanton (VTIPG), Laura York (VTIPG/CPHPR), Farhanaz Sharmin (VTIPG), and Rabita Banee (VTIPG) recently completed second year annual reports for the NRVCS’ advisory board that outlined progress to date. VTIPG Senior Research Associate David Moore has also been providing technical assistance to this project by assisting with the development of a digital data collection instrument; as well as setting up an Access database system to help track data and monitor grant activity.
More on Our Group
Katie Hanton is a Graduate Research Assistant with VTIPG while studying for her Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning. Katie assists with data collection and entering information into the group’s data management tool. In addition, she assists with developing training materials and outcomes reporting.
Laura York, Graduate Research Assistant with VTIPG and the Center for Public Health Practice & Research, is studying to obtain her Master’s in Public Health, concentrating in Public Health Education. Laura assists with entering weekly National Outcomes Measures (NOMS) into the SAMSHA Performance Accountability and Reporting System (SPARS) as well as process evaluation measures for the New River Valley Community Services and Mount Rogers Community Services sites.
Rabita Banee, a doctoral student in Public Administration and Public Affairs and Graduate Research Assistant with VTIPG, currently works with the SAMHSA-CCBHC data group. Her responsibilities include entering NOMS data into SPARS, updating weekly data collection Reassessment Lists and assisting with related data management issues. Farhanaz Sharmin is currently a PhD student in Agricultural and Applied Economics (AAEC). In her current role as a Graduate Research Assistant at VTIPG, she is assisting with data management and analysis and designing efforts to improve the data collection process. Her goal in coming months is to evaluate the effectiveness of the behavioral and mental health services provided by New River Valley Community Services (NRVCS) and the validity of self-reported data concerning illegal substance use.