ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
After multiple years of work, Liberal’s Southwest Guidance Center (SWGC) has officially been named a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC).
CCBHCs are designed to ensure access to coordinated comprehensive behavioral health care. CCBHCs are required to serve anyone who requests care for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay, place of residence, or age. This includes developmentally appropriate care for children and youth.
“CCBHCs must meet standards for the range of services they provide and are required to get people into care quickly," a brief from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration noted. “The CCBHC model requires: crisis services to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; comprehensive behavioral health services to be available so people who need care don't have to piece together the behavioral health support they need across multiple providers; and care coordination to be provided to help people navigate behavioral health care, physical health care, social services, and the other systems they are involved in.”
SWGC Director Dr. Marshall Lewis said it is very exciting to have finally reached this milestone for the facility.
“This certainly did not happen overnight, this has been in the works for multiple years by this point. The staff at Southwest Guidance Center is absolutely incredible, they're inspiring, and they have worked tirelessly on this project including nights and weekends,” Lewis said. “There was a lot of celebration and relief when we got the word, and we got that email at the beginning of the year from KDADS. The requirements and criteria were frequently a surprise in terms of the reports and everything else we ultimately ended up having to send in, and it's been a very extensive yet exciting experience. And it's not over yet, there's still work to be done. Our next step is staffing things up, we're on a big recruitment drive right now. We're looking for specific types of case managers in different capacities, and those didn't exist even just last year, so we're really working hard with that.”
Lewis said there are many other things to think about in terms of the facility’s future.
“It's kind of hard to see too far into the future at the moment because there are so many things going on at this time. What I would like, however, is for all of these programs we'll be implementing to be able to grow,” Lewis said. “I would like to see especially more development in terms of child mental healthcare, and I'd also like to see more done in terms of crisis services. We don't have a crisis house that can be utilized by people under those 48-hour or 72-hour holds, so that's something I'd like to see in Liberal. At this time, and with everything else we've got going on, however, it's kind of hard to see that far out.”
The facility officially celebrated the milestone last week, and Lewis said he cannot give enough thanks for the support seen throughout the process of SWGC becoming a CCBHC.
“This support is really overwhelming, but I can't express enough gratitude toward everyone who's been part of this process, because we've never done anything like this before,” Lewis said. “It was fantastic to see all of the community members who showed up not just for the ribbon-cutting but also for the presentation given by the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas (ACMHKC), and I also have to thank Baker Arts Center for doing the catering and the Chamber of Commerce for doing the ribbon-cutting itself. It's great seeing that level of support from the community, especially when it comes to an issue like this. I have a lot of gratitude toward the community for its support, and even more so for our SWGC staff who have worked so hard for us to reach this milestone. I can’t wait to see what comes next!”
