By Elana Gordon
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-991228.mp3
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri will soon be the first in the nation to try out a new approach for caring for people with both mental and physical health disorders.
"Health homes" will be popping up across the state next year, but they're probably not what you think: no one's going to live in them.
"It is instead a place where their health care services are coordinated," says Tom Cranshaw, head of Tri-County Mental Health Services, a community mental health center in the Northland.
Starting in January, Cranshaw's center and the two dozen or so other mental health centers across Missouri will oversee mental and physical health services for patients with co-occurring conditions.
Cranshaw says this new model makes a lot of sense: people with mental illnesses die, on average, 25 years younger than the general population because they're more likely to have chronic health problems like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
"So the expectation is if we can help those with mental disorders have greater access to both prevention and treatment of chronic disorders, we can improve their quality of life and contain health care costs simultaneously," says Cranshaw.
Cranshaw says a lack of resources has made it difficult to provide this level of care in the past. With the new funding, Tri-County will bring on new medical staff to help coordinate patient care.
"We won't be providing the treatment, but we'll be providing the health education and prevention," says Cranshaw. "We will have access to all of the medical records of these mental health consumers whom we've been treating on the mental health side."
The new initiative is part of the Affordable Care Act and will be funded, starting next year, through additional Medicaid reimbursements to community mental health centers.
Missouri was one of three states who submitted proposals for such funds.
Cranshaw expects at least 15,000 Medicaid recipients in the state will be eligible, come January, to join a "health home."
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