CTC Wins Grant for Community Health Teams and SBIRT Screening

  • 29 Jun 2017

After piloting a successful Community Health Teams initiative for more than three years, CTC was well-positioned to apply for a unique grant opportunity with the State to expand the work of Community Health Teams and Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral and Treatment (SBIRT) screening for substance use disorders and mental health disorders in Rhode Island. CTC was recently notified that our Collaborative was selected for this exciting opportunity! Over the next five years, we will receive financial support to:

  • Add 2-3 new Community Health Teams in high need areas in Rhode Island;
  • Establish a Centralized Operational Oversight function; and
  • Hire, train, and deploy 24 SBIRT specialists in various settings to achieve 250,000 screenings over 5 years.

To successfully implement this project, CTC will provide leadership, establish a project governance structure, provide project management, and will build out our existing CHT centralized management team to oversee the day-to-day operations of the CHTs and SBIRT subcontracts. To achieve the above SBIRT screening goals, we will partner with The Providence Center, our existing Community Health teams (Blackstone Valley and Pawtucket/Central Falls), and Thundermist Community Health Center. We anticipate deploying SBIRT screeners in high volume locations like emergency departments. In addition, the SBIRT screeners and peer recovery coaches will be added to both of the existing CHTs teams and the 3 new teams.

Under this contract, CTC will be seeking a new Project Manager to support this expanded work. A job description outline is available here, should you or your practice have a particular individual who may be interested.

In addition to this State grant to expand Community Health Teams in Rhode Island, UnitedHealthcare has committed to providing additional funding to fully implement a new Community Health Team in the Newport area, which includes the hiring of four staff members. CTC will be working with East Bay Community Action Program to implement the new Community Health Team.

We look forward to seeing the important work of our Community Health Teams continue in Rhode Island!