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Granville County awarded $25,000 grant

Granville County was recently selected to receive funding through Cardinal Innovations Healthcare’s Community Reinvestment Initiative. The grant will be used to better address mental health and substance abuse disorders among the local jailed population, helping build upon an existing pilot project to address a gap in service, reduce repeat occurrences of bad behavior and lower instances of unrest due to mental health crises at the Granville County Detention Center.

 Granville County has plans to launch a telemedicine mental health clinic at the Granville County Detention Center in 2018/2019 and has identified a partner in Durham-based program, Correctional Behavioral Health, under the direction of correctional psychologist Deron Coy, PhD. Dr. Coy’s services include individualized mental health assessment and treatment of jail detainees. Through Correctional Behavioral Health, a weekly mental health clinic – by videoconference – is offered for new assessments and previously assessed followups. Services are also available every day of the year for mental health crisis situations and for detainees on suicide watch.

The Detention Center currently has a part-time nurse that comes in every day for two hours, and a doctor who comes to the facility once a week. There is currently no dedicated mental health clinician or substance abuse professional that provides services to those who may need assistance. Due to the limited services available, the Center is unable to address treatment and recovery options for mental illness or substance abuse disorders.

 The Granville County Detention Center also struggles with severe space limitations, resulting in many of its intakes being sent to other counties each month. The telehealth program provided by Correctional Behavioral Health will not only result in cost savings for the county, but will help reduce behavioral management problems, will help clear documentation of clinical activities in inmates’ medical records and will provide improved communication and support between medical staff and detention officers, as well as reducing the county’s liability.

 Granville County is presently part of the “Stepping Up Initiative” with four surrounding counties: Vance, Franklin, Warren and Halifax. Dr. Coy is currently assisting two other jails in the five-county region. Granville-Vance Public Health has also been researching ways to access a more consistent approach to mental health and substance use disorder treatment in the area.

 Organizations were asked by Cardinal Innovations to submit proposals for programs that would improve health outcomes for those with intellectual/developmental disabilities, mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders. Granville County’s funding request was one of hundreds of proposals from across Cardinal Innovations Healthcare’s 20-county service area, with proposals accepted from municipalities, counties, public school systems, colleges/universities and qualifying non-profits.

 Final approval of the awards was made by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

 

(Pictured on home page are Elliott Clark of Cardinal Innovations Healthcare; Edward Cash of the Granville County Detention Center and Charla Duncan of Granville County Government.)

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