New 24th St. building latest step in $4M CMH grant effort. What programs will expand?

St. Clair County Community Mental Health is still in the process of moving into its new building on 24th Street in Port Huron Township. But program directors said they’re already seeing some of the benefits of having more space.

The agency began the move for its children’s services Oct. 7 and was gearing up late last week to move its applied behavioral analysis program in the coming days.

To celebrate the new digs, 2415 24th St, officials plan to host an open house Nov. 13.

The overall effort is part of a much bigger, multi-million-dollar grant effort that is also making room for expanded substance abuse treatment efforts — through substance use disorder programming with additional therapists — at CMH’s main Electric Avenue building in Port Huron.

Space for substance use disorder care — and more

Back at the main building, 311 Electric Ave., however, CMH Executive Director Deb Johnson said they were still working on a plan for how many therapists they’d need for substance use disorder clients

CMH announced it had received a $4 million grant through the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — with $2 million a year over two years — to become a certified community behavioral health clinic, or CCBHC, in late 2018.

At the time, officials cited the opioid crisis as among the major drivers in the breadth of needs they hoped to help fulfill. In addition to becoming a behavioral health clinic, CCBHC also opens up the possibility to become a certified opioid treatment center.

But last week, Johnson acknowledged the rise in need to help those suffering from a drug addiction has evolved beyond just opioids, citing a resurgence of things like methamphetamine activities investigated by local law enforcement.

As part of that effort, Johnson said, they’re contracting with Region 10 PIHP on some substance use services funding. Region 10 Executive Director Jim Johnson said there’s no set funding for that contract.

Kathleen Gallagher, CMH program supervisor, said the space left on Electric would also accommodate growth in adult outpatient care, which also impacts how much staffing they’ll need.

“It’ll be split between them now because we’ve ran out of space already,” she said. “We’re working on ways to reconfigure the main building.”

What else does the grant do?

The CCBHC program also allows for a series of long-term improvements, particularly services that weren’t previously available to some individuals.

The biggest example, Johnson said, is that previously people could only receive treatment for their substance use disorder if they had a dual disorder with another mental illness.

“We want to be able house the most staff that we can over there. We’re in the process of doing that,” Johnson said. “But the reason that we needed to make so much more room is because of that CCBHC funding … that we have, and the primary intention of the grant is to expand access to services to people with mental illness, substance use disorder, kids with severe emotional disturbances (and more).”

Although the CCBHC funding runs out after two years, Johnson said they’re hoping more comes through with so much support at the federal level.

“One thing people might say, ‘Oh, you’re doing all this stuff, and what if you don’t get funding?’” she said. “We still need the level of space that we have with or without that additional funding. Even without that additional funding, we are still getting funding from Region 10.”

New space that best accommodates kids; open house details

There’s about 15,000 square feet of space at the new building, which CMH picked up at no cost last June from Lake Huron Medical Center.

There, ABA and children’s programs, including skills and other support services, Johnson said, will also have some room to expand down the road. Overall, ABA Program Coordinator Jessica Moeller said there is expected to be a staff of 55 to 60 staff between the two areas there.

On Friday, Moeller described the benefits that came with having more space in the new building’s maze of desks, offices and clerical rooms. Some of the latter had whiteboards waiting to be hung, and others differed in a casual setup versus traditional meeting tables.

“That way, it kind of gives our clinicians more flexibility about the nature of their meeting or what’s most comfortable to some of our kids and families,” Moeller said. “… Before, we were all kind of crammed into the main office.”

As of this summer, CMH was serving more than 1,000 children with either a severe emotional disturbance, intellectual or developmental disability or those with co-occurring disorders in the county.

Meeting space was a big need in both buildings, Gallagher said, adding, “We had all of our services there. It became almost impossible when we started expanding with the CCBHC.”

Although the children’s programming were already operational at the new building, officials said there were still a few finishing touches to be done to the area that’s become CMH’s new ABA center.

That program will have its own entrance and lobby at the back of the building, along with space for staff and storage of toys and materials

“We are still in the middle of some renovations here,” Moeller said. “… All of our families will be able to park close to the building and come in through the back, so our kids aren’t having to transition through the traffic out front.”

She added, “It’ll be much cuter on the 13th.”

CMH’s open house for 2415 24th St. is slated from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, with refreshments, building tours and a chance to meet agency staff. For more information, email sherrle@sccmh.org or call (810) 966-7868.

Contact local government reporter Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

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