Compass Health, Inc., recently received a $4 million grant to help it expand behavioral health services across Missouri.
Compass Health, which focuses on behavioral health and helping clients overcome substance use disorders, serves more than 40 counties in a belt across Central Missouri.
Lori Davila, who directs behavioral health grants on behalf of the nonprofit, said the grant is intended -- in part -- to improve access to community-based mental health and substance use disorder treatment and support. Davila said part of the funding will help people who are uninsured or under-insured to receive behavioral health services.
"We're looking at making sure those with the most need for treatments are really getting access," she said. "The most vulnerable populations."
According to a Compass Health news release, "targeted" individuals of the program include any individuals with a mental illness or substance use disorder who are seeking clinical care, including those individuals with serious mental illness, substance use disorder, children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance, individuals with co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders, and individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis.
Compass Health will also use portions of the grant to expand crisis mental health services, provide mental health services for veterans and members of the armed forces, include family members of clients in programming, complete regular needs assessments, partner with other stakeholders, address cultural competency and implicit bias reduction training and implement a science pilot project.
More than 3,000 Compass Health staff members have received implicit bias training, Davila said. Implicit bias is a form of bias that is based on unconscious associations and feelings, and may affect understanding, actions and decisions.
"Science project was something that was part of the application process," Davila said. "It was part of the grant. It will give us the opportunity to partner with researchers around the country who are studying (behavioral health concerns)."
The project is looking at the research and determining how to implement best practices in implementing community behavioral health, she said.
"Oftentimes in research, you find intervention that is evidence-based," she said. "There can be difficulties implementing it in the real world. How do we take this research and apply it in the real world?"