Westchester's Open Door Care Network Receives $550,000 Grant from The Steven & Alexandra Coehn Foundation

The Open Door Care Network has received a one-year $550,000 grant from the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation for the implementation of the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) in its School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) in Port Chester, NY. CoCM is the integrated behavioral health care model with the strongest evidence base for addressing mental health needs within the primary care space. CoCM brings together an interdisciplinary team including a primary care provider, a behavioral health professional and a psychiatric consultant to deliver high-quality, patient-centered mental health services where the patient is already receiving care. This model has been shown to enhance early detection and treatment of mental health conditions, and improve relapse prevention by leveraging validated mental health screenings, measurement-based care, and care coordination for conditions like depression, anxiety, substance abuse and other behavioral health conditions; supporting patients and their families in their journey to optimized mental health This will be the first CoCM integration in a school-based health setting in New York State. The grant will support the hiring of two Behavioral Health Care Managers, who will serve students in kindergarten through high school graduation and be embedded within the Port Chester SBHCs, ensuring that the students receive timely, coordinated behavioral health care in a familiar setting. The implementation will be supported by technical assistance from the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, a national leader in mental health that is dedicated to accelerating access to quality mental healthcare across the country. The schools served by Open Door’s SBHCs are attended mostly by low-income children from underserved communities. The Port Chester School District was home to the first Open Door SBHC locations, which opened in 2004. In this district, Open Door operates five SBHCs, in three elementary schools, a middle school and high school, serving a student population where nearly 80 percent of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch, which is a metric widely understood to indicate the low-income status of students within a school district. “This is a groundbreaking opportunity for us to bring this model to our School-Based Health Centers,” said Karen Mandel, Senior Director, Behavioral and Community Health at Open Door. “The initiative will ensure that children have access to the very best behavioral healthcare, delivered through a proven evidence-based model. By integrating behavioral health into the primary care setting of our SBHCs through the CoCM, Open Door will empower children and adolescents to thrive, strengthen school and family partnerships, and advance equity in access to mental health services for those who need them most.” “The Meadows Institute is thrilled to partner with the Open Door Care Network to support the implementation of the Collaborative Care Model in a school-based setting in New York,” said Clare McNutt, PA-C, Senior Vice President for Health System Integration of the Meadows Institute. “Mental illness is a pediatric illness, and the generosity of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation will help bring access to mental healthcare to schoolchildren who benefit from early identification of needs when treatment is most effective.” About Open Door The Open Door Care Network provides whole person care: medical and dental; behavioral and mental health; prevention and wellness; family, youth, and senior support; early childhood programs; and community and advocacy services in Westchester, Dutchess, Putnam, and Ulster counties. Through the Nita M. Lowey Center for Health in Schools program, Open Door provides medical and dental care, behavioral health screenings and referrals, to enrolled students in the Ossining and Webutuck school districts, in addition to Port Chester.