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OLYMPIA -- The Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), the Community Health Plan, and Harborview Medical Center have added a long-sought mental health benefit to a pilot project in King and Pierce counties that is testing a managed care approach to the General Assistance-Unemployable (GA-U) Program.
Nearly half of the clients in the GA-U program have been identified with mental health issues that often contribute to their disabilities, but the state-funded program has never included a mental health or counseling benefit in the past.
That changed December 1, 2007, under a $3.4 million appropriation by the 2007 Legislature, which added the benefit to the current managed care pilot in King and Pierce counties. The budget note also directs DSHS to seek local matching funds to help pay for the additional benefit.
"For many years, we have been concerned about this population – predominantly homeless, incapable of self-sustaining employment, and very often suffering from serious mental health issues," said MaryAnne Lindeblad, Director of the Division of Healthcare Services. "I want to thank Community Health Plan, which put together the proposal that persuaded legislators to fund this change. While it has been something we have talked about for years, it was Community Health Plan that made it work."
Richard Kellogg, Director of the Mental Health Division, said the change was another example of DSHS recognizing that medical assistance often needs to go hand in hand with mental health services – and sometimes chemical dependency treatment.
"This is one of a number of areas in which DSHS is looking at co-occurring conditions like mental illness, substance abuse, or chronic care that can be complicated by other concerns," Kellogg said. "The important thing is that we are working together."
The new benefit is being offered at two levels:
1) The first level relies on care coordinators at the primary care sites to coordinate care, provide brief intervention therapy, and make referrals to needed services.
2) The second level is for more complex clients. The care coordinators will authorize services with the community mental health system if they have a need for more intensive treatments.
Both levels of care will have access to psychiatric experts at the University of Washington to assist with complex clients and provide consultation to the primary care providers, particularly around medication issues. A tracking system will be used to aggressively oversee the integrated care to ensure clients receive timely, appropriate care.
Amandalei Bennett, Manager for the pilot project, said that she is hopeful the benefit could one day be extended to other GA-U recipients around the state if it proves workable in the managed care pilot.
"I'm very excited that not only are we are providing much needed mental health services but that we are integrating the services with medical care," Bennett said. "It has been proven that chronically mentally ill clients die 25 years sooner than the rest of the population, primarily due to medical conditions aggravated by the mental health behavior and medications.
"We are very lucky to be working with the University of Washington with their behavioral IMPACT model. We have full confidence many of our clients will be able to return to work because of this treatment."
Who are the GA-U clients?
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND BACKGROUND:
Amandalei Bennett, Manager, GA-U Managed Care Pilot Project, HRSA, DSHS, 360-725-1646
David DiGiuseppe, Director, Product Development, Community Health Plan, 206-613-8946
Betsy Jones, Community Health Plan consultant, 206-947-2254 or betsy@kjcopy.com.
Jim Stevenson, Communications Director, HRSA, DSHS, 360-902-7604 (pager 360-971-4067)
