Manatee Rural Health receives $250,000 to aid in mental health, substance abuse treatment

Nov. 07--MANATEE -- Licensed clinical social workers, behavioral health case managers, psychiatric nurse practitioners and mental health support staffer take note.

Manatee County Rural Health is hiring.

Rural Health was notified Thursday by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, that it was awarded a pair of $250,000 Affordable Health Care grants for this year and next to beef up its behavioral health services, said Linda Snyder, who coauthored the grants with Terrye Bradley.

"We're excited," Synder said Friday. "It's a wonderful opportunity."

Rural Health was awarded the money specifically for hiring new mental health professionals, adding mental health and substance use disorder health services and employing integrated models of primary care, Snyder said.

Manatee County Rural Health will spend approximately $200,000 this year on five new employees, as well as $40,000 for video equipment to do video conferencing between its various centers and $10,000 for office supplies and overhead, Snyder said.

This year's funds are available right now and the organization hopes to start hiring immediately, Snyder said.

"People can call us at 941-776-4000 if they are interested in one of these positions," Snyder said.

All five new positions will be at Rural Health'sSouthwest Health Center, 5325 26th St. W., Bradenton, whose focus is mental health services and psychiatry.

The video equipment will enable primary health care providers at Rural Health's other 18 centers to access behavior health providers at Southwest Health Center.

"The vision is that if one of our doctors at any of our locations has a patient with issues of depression or anxiety, they can access a behavioral health specialist at the Southwest Health Center through video conferencing," Snyder said.

Snyder said MCRH has a "talented" information technology staff that she hopes will set up the new equipment by Jan. 1.

An increase in demand at the Southwest Health Center has made the need urgent, Snyder said.

"I am sure the number of patients has increased there," Snyder said. "We had to expand staffing."

Southwest takes patients without insurance on a sliding fee scale since it is a federally qualified health center.

In fact, the grants announced Thursday were only to federally qualified health centers and Rural Health is the only one in Manatee County, Snyder said.

Awards totaled $51.3 million in funding to support 210 health centers in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico for nearly 440,000 people nationwide.

Five of the 210 recipients awarded money are located in Florida, including three in Miami and one in Palatka.

"Today's awards will give health centers the ability to improve access and care for individuals in need of mental health services," said HRSA Administrator Mary Wakefield in a release Thursday. "These funds support the administration's focus on improving recognition of and responding to the mental health needs of people nationwide."

Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7072 or contact him via Twitter@RichardDymond.

___

(c)2014 The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)

Visit The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.) at www.bradenton.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services