Determining the barriers to receiving mental health treatment was identified by the Substance Use Prevention Alliance  as an action that, when combined with other actions in our community, has a reasonable chance of making a difference in the number of individuals not receiving mental health care in our community. This is a new program in our community.

The priority population/customers for determining mental health treatment barriers are individuals or family members who've had trouble accessing treatment.  Determining treatment barriers aims to make a difference at the individual and organizational levels. Implementation will take place in community settings, such treatment centers, soup kitchens, churches and the local homeless shelter.  

This strategy addresses disparities by identifying gaps in receiving mental health and substance use treatment.  

2020 Update: 

The Substance Use Prevention Alliance includes an active work group that addresses barriers to treatment and recovery.  Before COVID-19 began impacting in-person activities, several focus groups gathered input from those with lived experience (Haywood Pathways Center, 2020).  A virtual group was later held with treatment providers and other community organizations (Haywood County Health and Human Services Agency, 2020).  Partnering organizations included Haywood Pathways Center and members of Healthy Haywood's Substance Use Prevention Alliance.  

The partners for this determining substance use and mental health treatment barriers include:

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of determining barriers to care through the use of Results-Based Accountability™ to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures. Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for determining barriers to receiving mental health and substance use treatment: 

• Sustainability Component:
  • Lessons learned from focus groups will be shared with local treatment providers and other community-based organizations.  This will assist them in addressing barriers to receiving treatment.