RiverValley Behavioral Health was recently awarded a $180,000 grant from Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE) to expand substance abuse services in homeless shelters over the next year.
“We know that substance abuse often co-occurs with mental illness in the homeless population,” said Dr. Lionel Phelps, RiverValley’s Vice President of Continuous Quality Improvement. “We want to address this issue and break down the obstacles to treatment and recovery. The funding from this grant will allow us to hire additional staff for our Mobile Crisis Team and provide additional technology supports to identify and treat individuals dealing with a substance use disorder who reside in homeless shelters. We can help prevent and reduce homelessness by addressing the disorders that are contributing factors.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, staff at RiverValley Behavioral Health — a nonprofit organization specializing in the provision of mental and behavioral health services — have taken measures to ensure the continuity of services for those in need. They increased the capacity and outreach of their 24/7 Mobile Crisis Team, which responds to adults and children who are experiencing a behavioral health or substance use crisis. Since its implementation in August 2020, the Mobile Crisis Team has received over 1,000 dispatches and is now averaging 85 runs per month.
“The pandemic brought to light the importance of addressing mental health as part of our overall health,” said Dr. Wanda Figueroa Peralta, RiverValley’s President & CEO. “We cannot separate mental health support recovery from the impact of COVID on physical health. Children and adults, healthcare providers, schools and businesses are exhausted and suffering and we are committed to leverage more resources to help.”
RiverValley has allocated community-based services through its Case Management programs to address the additional needs brought by the pandemic, and has partnered with Owensboro Health to provide the CredibleMind resource to the community. The CredibleMind platform delivers consumer-friendly, evidence-based help on more than 200 topics such as anxiety, depression, parenting, and relationships and can be accessed by visiting https://healthymind.crediblemind.com/.
