Philly health centers get $1.2M to expand mental health and substance use treatment options

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

A federal agency has awarded $1.2 million dollars to community health centers in Philadelphia to expand mental health care and substance use disorder treatment.

The money will be split into two $600,000 grants, going to nonprofit Greater Philadelphia Health Action and the city Department of Public Health’s Ambulatory Health Services division, which manages nine City Health Centers.

Both operate public health clinics that offer low-cost primary care and some behavioral health services for people who are underinsured or uninsured.

The funding is part of $7.7 million in grants, 13 in total, that will be distributed to community health organizations and programs across Pennsylvania.

Carole Johnson, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, said the purpose of this money is to make behavioral health care more accessible where people are already getting other types of health care.

“If we’re going to be able to meet the moment when it comes to the increasing demand for mental health and substance use disorder services, then we need to use our full footprint of where we deliver health care,” Johnson said, “and integrating these services into primary care just makes a whole lot of sense.”

Many sites have tried to meet this demand and add more behavioral health options, but Johnson said they often lack the resources to do so.

“[Nationally], they were only able to meet about 7% of the demand, so we know that there is a huge gap,” she said.

Health centers can now use this new money to expand their services and increase access to mental health and substance use treatment by investing in specialists, training and appointments.

“Some of it’s about hiring and supporting having more licensed clinical social workers on site to provide support and counseling, some of it is about having more community health workers and people with lived experience like peer support specialists,” Johnson said.

Johnson said there’s a big push for health centers to reduce appointment wait times and referrals for care elsewhere, and add more treatment options, especially medications for opioid use disorder.

“And being able to get a couple of awardees in Philadelphia actually means we’ll have a pretty substantial reach,” Johnson said.