Submitted by: Unity Care NW
Unity Care NW has been awarded $285,000 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand mental health and substance abuse services at our community health center. The focus of our efforts will be treatment, prevention and increasing awareness about opioid abuse and co-occurring disorders.
Unity Care NW plans to use these funds to create a chemical dependency and Medication Assisted Therapy program and to better integrate mental health, substance use and primary care services for our patients. Unity Care NW will be hiring a full-time licensed chemical dependency counselor (CDP) and a contracted CDP clinical supervisor to carry out this work.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, “Primary care settings, like the community health centers supported by HRSA’s Health Center Program, have increasingly become a gateway to integrated care for individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) and primary care needs.” The grant funding provided will enable community health centers to improve access to primary care-based substance use disorder services, including Medication Assisted Therapy for opioid addiction, as well as pain management and other preventive health services.
Unity Care NW looks forward to expanding access to these behavioral health services and helping to combat our community’s ongoing opioid crisis.
