This month, Liberty Resources in Syracuse was one of 13 new Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) in New York to get a $265,000 grant from the state.
The clinic says the money will mostly go towards boosting staffing — and a community-wide electronic records system that really excites Clinical Director Leah Phaneuf.
“I know none of my doctors talk to each other, so the idea of all of your providers…connected to each other, that’s pretty neat,” she said.
The system, which should be up by July, would allow all of their patients’ providers to access their health care records. The doctors can be anywhere in the area, and do not have to be affiliated with Liberty Resources.
"So if I'm prescribing something, and another provider in the community is prescribing a medication, then we're coordinating," said Phaneuf. "And we're ensuring that we're communicating and providing the best care we can."
However, it's not just that the providers can communicate across networks — at Liberty Resources, many of them are already under one roof.
This coordinated care model in behavioral health is only about a decade old, and is replacing a siloed model "that does not work any longer,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul, when announcing the grants earlier this month, which are part of her billion-dollar plan to expand mental health care in the state.
“You can have mental health challenges, depression and suicidal thoughts, be bipolar, but also have substance abuse challenges, addiction to fentanyl, to opioids and other addictive materials," said Hochul.
Under the old model, getting treatment for the above required going to at least two different places, which takes a lot of time and energy out of someone’s day, and out of their life. Says Hochul: “We're changing that.”
In Syracuse, Liberty Resources is basically a one-stop shop of diverse therapy and substance abuse treatments, regardless of insurance, or of clients’ ability to pay.
Vice President Melissa Jillson says they run many other services too, including a mobile crisis unit and housing and employment programs. And this summer, the clinic became federally certified to offer something she says many of their counterparts do not.
“What's unique about Liberty…is that we also have the primary care component too,” said Jillson. “Most CCBHCs don't also have that, so you're having to establish arrangements with providers that are external to the organization.”
Liberty Resources clients don’t have to get their primary care at the clinic, but if they choose to, said Jillson, “your providers, again, are under the same roof and can be problem-solving and collaborating around your care.”
The clinic leaders admit that that coordinating care is not without its challenges, like figuring out what constitutes billable services from providers around the community. But Phaneuf and Jillson also say this is exactly what care should look like in the behavioral health world.
