Optum Idaho Donates $200,000 to Increase Mental Health Care Access Statewide
26 Enero 2022 - 10:00AM
Business Wire
Grant will address workforce development
crisis by supporting training in mental health and substance use
disorder education for Idaho health care professionals
Optum Idaho, the managed care organization for the state of
Idaho’s Medicaid behavioral health plan and part of UnitedHealth
Group (NYSE: UNH), has awarded $200,000 to the University of
Idaho’s Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes)
aimed at increasing mental health care access statewide for adults,
children and families.
The entire state of Idaho is designated as a mental health
provider shortage area by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. With
limited access to traditional mental health clinicians, patients
often rely on primary care providers to receive mental and
behavioral health services, particularly in rural areas. However,
primary care providers often lack specialized knowledge and
clinical confidence to effectively treat patients with chronic,
severe mental illness.
“Optum Idaho is committed to addressing this mental health
workforce crisis by partnering with ECHO Idaho to increase the
capacity of the current primary care workforce,” said Optum Idaho
Executive Director Georganne Benjamin. “While the need for
behavioral health services has increased exponentially over the
past two years due to the residual effects of the COVID pandemic,
the already-stretched-thin capacity of Idaho’s mental health care
workforce to treat patients has not grown to meet this demand.”
The donation will support ECHO Idaho’s ongoing efforts to
develop behavioral health training materials; conduct a free,
virtual mental health and substance use disorder series; engage
with Optum Idaho professional clinicians to share mental health
perspectives and expertise with Idaho’s primary care workforce; and
ensure sustainability for ECHO Idaho to deliver behavioral health
care training to medical professionals in rural communities.
“We’re grateful for the commitment of Optum Idaho to improve
care for patients by inviting all medical and behavioral health
perspectives to the conversation about mental health care access,”
said Project ECHO Idaho Director Lachelle Smith. “Along with
informing their practice, ECHO participants have a chance to
connect with and be supported by a virtual community.”
“ECHO Idaho provides a unique evidence-based, multidisciplinary
platform to connect with health care teams around the state that
address and provide support for the increased behavioral health
concerns that we are seeing,” said Dr. Christopher Streeter,
medical director and pediatric psychiatrist at St. Luke’s
Children’s Center for Neurobehavioral Medicine in Boise, who
currently facilitates the Pediatric Autism series of ECHO Idaho
trainings. “Through this learning community, we not only learn
about new ways to approach treatment for our patients, but also
learn what resources our peers have access to around the
state.”
Optum Idaho has partnered with the state Division of Medicaid to
operate the Idaho Behavioral Health Plan (IBHP) since 2013, and
offers outpatient behavioral health treatment services for more
than 373,000 Medicaid members through a network of more than 2,000
trained clinicians and providers across the state. The Idaho
Department of Health and Welfare’s managed care program will soon
be expanded to include inpatient treatment and Institutions for
Mental Diseases; substance use disorder/residential care; expanded
Medicaid outpatient services; Assertive Community Treatment teams;
crisis system services; and a variety of non-Medicaid services to
help fill treatment gaps for Idahoans who are uninsured or
underinsured.
The ECHO Idaho grant is part of several initiatives by Optum
Idaho and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, to address mental
health access, outcomes and disparities in Idaho. These include a
$100,000 matching grant from Optum Idaho to support the Idaho Youth
Ranch Residential Center for Healing and Resilience, a new
adolescent psychiatric residential treatment option for Idaho
families on Medicaid, who currently must send their children out of
state in search of inpatient care.
In addition, Optum Idaho recently contributed $100,000 to Idaho
State University’s Meridian Sam and Aline Skaggs Health Science
Center to provide tuition support for up to five licensed Optum
network IBHP psychologists to complete a two-year Master of Science
in Clinical Psychopharmacology (MSCP) training and supervision
program for credentialing of prescription privileges. Optum Idaho
also provided $50,000 in funding for a licensed physician who will
provide supervision and support for IBHP enrollees while training
in the MSCP program for two years.
Through 2021, Optum Idaho has underwritten the cost of training
for more than 1,400 Idahoans in Mental Health First Aid, a
CPR-style instruction that enables participants respond to
real-life, mental health situations in their communities. And
during 2021, Optum Idaho’s “Hello Idaho!” mental health awareness
campaign designed to reduce isolation and encourage inclusion was
viewed more than 51 million times statewide.
About Optum
Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health
services business dedicated to helping make the health system work
better for everyone. With more than 210,000 people worldwide, Optum
delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize
the health system and improve overall population health. Optum
Idaho manages outpatient behavioral health benefits for Idaho
Medicaid members. Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH).
For more information, visit www.Optum.com.
About ECHO Idaho
ECHO Idaho through the University of Idaho is part of Project
ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), a revolution in
medical education and care delivery, designed to increase the
capacity of medical providers working in rural and underserved
areas. Clinicians statewide join ECHO Idaho using video
conferencing for one-hour sessions that include brief lectures,
case reviews, resource sharing and discussion. For more
information, visit Project ECHO through University of Idaho
(uidaho.edu).
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220126005155/en/
Optum Idaho Media Contact: Chris Smith Director of
Strategic Communications 208-914-2241 chrissmith@optum.com
ECHO Idaho Media Contact: Lindsay Lodis Marketing and
Communications Manager 208-364-4037 llodis@uidaho.edu
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