SAMSHA awards $625,000 ($125,000 per year for 5 years) to Integral Care to provide Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training, as well as Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM), and Safety Planning Intervention (SPI), to families, caregivers, and service providers in contact with armed service personnel, veterans and their families who may be experiencing a mental health challenge, and potentially impairing their functioning in daily life activities.
 
Individuals targeted for Mental Health Awareness Training may work with veterans and armed-service members in a community-based counseling center, or healthcare facility, and/or may be Certified Veteran Peers, and/or may be a veteran’s family member or caregiver. These individuals interact on a daily basis with armed service personnel and veterans who are in need of multiple community-based services due to their complex and chronic trauma.

Integral Care has been awarded $5 million ($2.5 million per year for a two-year period) to address the needs of individuals with SED, SMI, and SUD or COD and improve access to behavioral health services, Integral Care will: (1) implement a new, fully integrated telehealth solution to offer HIPAA-compliant virtual care; (2) increase intake capacity by hiring additional helpline customer care staff, as well as clinic and community-based intake staff; (3) expand outpatient and community-based service with additional clinical staff to increase level-of-care services, additional housing stability specialists to help clients secure and maintain safe, stable housing, and community health workers to focus on whole health and wellness; and (4) offer enhanced recovery support services with additional peer support specialists in our clinics, the community, and across the substance use services continuum.

Integral Care will continue to support the mental health of staff, including new CMHC staff, in active collaboration with the agency’s Human Resources and Learning and Development Teams, which offer staff a variety of health and wellness resources, including the employee assistance program, our Live Well series, and more.

Integral Care received a $10,000 grant from the Religious Coalition to Assist the Homeless (RCAH), a coalition of Austin-area faith communities that provides grant funds to social service providers to expand the capacity of local housing and shelter programs. Funding from RCAH will help Integral Care provide wraparound support services for the residents of Terrace at Oak Springs and future residents of Studios at Menchaca, two single-site, permanent supportive housing communities.

All residents have experienced chronic homelessness and live with mental illness, substance use disorder, and/or other chronic health conditions. In permanent supportive housing communities like Terrace at Oak Springs and Studios at Menchaca, offering flexible, voluntary support services can help individuals stay housed, build their self-sufficiency, and contribute to their communities. Onsite wraparound services in the residential portion of the building will include case management, peer specialist support, benefits counseling, education, and job training/supported employment.

Integral Care has been awarded $155,329 for two years from the Health and Human Services Commission to hire a Children’s Mental Health System Navigator to provide linkage, advocacy, case management/system navigation, and referral coordination to children and youth experiencing mental illness, substance use disorders, or IDD who need assistance overcoming barriers to care.
 
This project will support children and youth who interact with different child-serving systems and enhance services for high-risk children and youth by creating and strengthening relationships with community partners.

In March Austin Public Health (APH) awarded Integral Care $333,573 for the Ryan White HIV Services. Integral Care’s Community AIDS Resources and Education (C.A.R.E.) Program will provide case management, mental health, and outpatient substance use services at the C.A.R.E. Program office, as well as in clients’ homes, in the community, and via telephone and Microsoft Teams in order to remove barriers for clients who are unable to access services at our office location.

More specifically, mental health services provided will include both individual and group counseling services, as well as psychiatric services for persons living with HIV (PLWH). Integral Care will also provide access to medical transportation assistance for the purpose of accessing primary medical care, services provided at the C.A.R.E. Program, and other supportive services.

Clients will also be able to access case management services via C.A.R.E.’s case management walk-in hours, which are offered multiple times per week. In addition, C.A.R.E. Program case managers will be able to complete SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) applications with members of the target population in order to increase access to the disability income benefit programs administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for eligible adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a co-occurring substance use disorder.

For residential substance use services, we will sub-contract these services to four subgrantees, including: Recovery Unplugged, Carma Health – MD services for Recovery Unplugged, Cross Creek Hospital, and Seton Shoal Creek Hospital.

In March of this year Integral Care received a grant award totaling $778,907 for housing stability services from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). With this grant Integral Care will provide support services to approximately 30 individuals receiving Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Vouchers either through the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) or the Housing Authority of Travis County (HATC). These support services will include case management, independent living skills training, housing stability support, access to psychiatric care, and peer support services.
 
More specifically, these funds will expand Integral Care’s Landlord Outreach Team by adding a Landlord Outreach Specialist and Peer Support Specialist. The team works to build new relationships with landlords and maintain relationships with properties willing to house individuals with a history of homelessness and mental health needs.
 
With this funding, Integral Care will add one case management position and a licensed counselor to expand onsite behavioral health services at the Community First Village’s onsite clinic. This will include case management, independent skills training, counseling, and housing stability.
 
One staff member will support individuals experiencing homelessness in accessing services at Sunrise Community Church, a local homeless day resource center. Services will include linking individuals to housing and/or behavioral health teams, completing coordinating assessments, and assisting with other housing navigation tasks.
 
Individuals accessing these services will have a history of chronic homelessness and a disabling condition and will be referred through the Coordinated Entry system. Individuals may currently be housed on a PSH Voucher and in need of high intensity, in-home support to maintain their housing or newly referred to the voucher program and experiencing homelessness.

Únase a Integral Care Y a NAMI de Central Texas el jueves 12 de mayo en un foro comunitario de formato virtual. Estaremos hablando acerca de cómo ofrecer apoyo a miembros familiares de personas que viven con problemas de salud mental en la comunidad Latina.

Check out this feature on Integral Care on the City of Austin’s YouTube channel.

Integral Care and Disability Rights Texas are excited to present a virtual community forum – The Rights of People Living with Behavioral Health Needs in Texas. Join us as we explore the history and rights of people who live with behavioral health needs, including mental illness, substance use disorders and intellectual and developmental disabilities in Texas, the protection of client information, how the law has changed over time, what the current law is and how this can impact service delivery and access to care. Learn more and register today.

On Wednesday, September 29 at 12pm, join Integral Care and the Central Texas Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for a virtual community forum about youth suicide prevention. Between 2007 and 2018, the national suicide rate among adolescents and youth increased by almost 60% – but there is hope. Prevention is possible when we focus on building protective factors and resiliency and ensuring that families have the education, tools, and resources to take early, meaningful action. Learn more and register today.