Mountain Comprehensive Care Center (MCC), is a is a Community Mental Health Center whose mission is to provide quality care that offers recovery and hope to its patients.[1] Their programs have been developed to address the most pressing issues affecting people from all walks of life within their region. Programs encompass a broad array of services including addiction services, adult and children’s behavioral health, crisis services, developmental/intellectual disability services, victim services, primary healthcare services, housing supports, foster care support, training, and homeless youth support including emergency shelter and transitional housing.
Awarded an Implementation III RCORP grant in 2021, the MCC RCORP team gathered a consortium of community agencies that provide a variety of services to help meet the needs of the community and reduce the impacts of substance use on individuals and families. The consortium studied the effects of substance use disorder on communities, identified service gaps, and has developed a strategy to provide a cohesive and collaborative effort to prevention substance use, reduce harm, and increase access to substance use disorder and behavioral health treatment and recovery services.
Located in eastern Kentucky, the region has long experienced extensive economic disparities with a high percentage of low-income families and those who are or at-risk for homelessness, behavioral health disparities including opioid use disorder and substance use disorders (OUD/SUD), and mental health disorders which have impacted both individuals and their families, as well as cultural stigma which has often decreased access to, and use of treatment and recovery supports. Identified gaps that the consortium has worked to address include but are not limited to: the need for education on OUD/SUD and available resources as well as address misconceptions/stigma; access to affordable, evidence based treatment and to build the capacity of the OUD/SUD workforce; access to transitional services, further integration of Peer Specialists, and coordination of resources across the area.
The MCC consortium is comprised of the Letcher County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), Letcher County Jail (LCJ), MCC, and Primary Care Centers of Eastern Kentucky (PCCEK). The MCC RCORP service area is comprised on seven counties and consortium partners are located in and providing services in one or more of the RCORP service area’s rural counties, with MCCC serving as the lead agency and RCORP grantee recipient. The consortium has focused on addressing multiple populations, including individuals who are at risk for, have been diagnosed with, and/or are in treatment and/or recovery for OUD (and polysubstance use), their families and/or caregivers, and other community members who reside in the service area.
Through ongoing efforts, MCC and their consortium partners have implemented several programs to help support individuals and their families in addressing harm reduction, OUD/SUD and behavioral health treatment, recovery networks, as well as community-level education efforts. Some services include but are not limited to: Peer Support Services, Transportation Services, Narcan education and distribution, Court and Justice Involved Linkage to Treatment Support, Clinical Support Services (Therapy and group support), Peer Recovery Groups and managing a Drop-in Center that offers laundry services, legal aid, art classes, nutrition classes, movie viewing parties, garden that clients maintain and harvest.
[1] https://www.mtcomp.org/notice