Creating regional recovery hubs in Indiana’s mental health ‘deserts’
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Mental health touches all of us, our friends, our families, ourselves. And with the CDC recently reporting an all-time high suicide rate, it’s never been more important to let people know that help is available.
Last month, the Indiana Recovery Network (IRN), a program of Mental Health America of Indiana (MHAI) was awarded a three-year, $900,000 grant from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation during Mental Health Matters Day at the Indiana State Fair. This grant will allow for better access to mental health and substance use disorder resources in rural areas. This grant will allow the IRN to fill “resource deserts” throughout Indiana to make sure that everyone has access to the help they need.
With this grant, we will be able to help six rural areas of the state through expanding services provided by Regional Recovery Hubs which include Project.ME in Allen County, Phoenix Paramedic Solutions in Tippecanoe County, 1 Voice in Dearborn County and the Safe Haven Recovery Engagement Center across Southern Indiana. These programs not only provide peer recovery support services, but provide resource navigation, which is more than just giving people a list. They can help people make appointments, complete paperwork, provide rides, and make peers available to go to appointments for moral support if requested.
This will provide the direct peer support that those recovering need to succeed. It will focus specifically on providing support to the people who have been falling through the gaps of the existing system once they have left Emergency Departments and hospitals for any sort of care. In these rural areas, hospitals are the primary point of care for most of the community. Many do not have a primary care provider and have not been to a physician in years, if not decades. Often they rely on the Emergency Department, but the ER does not provide the sustainable ongoing care and continuing resources necessary to support true recovery.
This is why connecting with peers in these Regional Recovery Hubs will be so vital. It provides the care and the framework to help those in need navigate all the processes that sometimes prevent people from seeking the help they need. Besides individual support services, these organizations provide group peer recovery, which helps people build support networks through social activities while providing access via referrals to affordable housing and transportation to help get lives back on track.
We are proud to help provide these services and are very thankful to those who have helped back these life-saving initiatives. It is crucial that we continue spreading awareness of these resources. But there is still much more to be done. With the help of our heroic staff, generous supporters like the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, and our 20 regional recovery hubs, these programs will provide a support model that can be replicated throughout the state and beyond.