This interview with Dayna Gladstein, President & CEO of Newport Mental Health, originally appeared in the Innovator Q&A column in The Boston Globe
The nonprofit is joining eight others in Rhode Island that are recognized as certified community behavioral health clinics
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. — In June, Rhode Island was one of 10 states awarded a federal grant that will allow service organizations to provide care to anyone who walks in, regardless of insurance, and be reimbursed through Medicaid.
Newport Mental Health will join eight organizations in the state that are recognized as certified community behavioral health clinics, or CCBHCs. Through this model, Rhode Islanders will have streamlined access to the mental health resources the organization has been providing for years.
“We’re all excited in Rhode Island for this continued transformation for behavioral health,” said Dayna Gladstein, president of Newport Mental Health, who has been eager to continue expanding the organization’s lifesaving resources.
Q: What types of services does Newport Mental Health provide?
A: Newport Mental Health provides a very broad range of services for Newport County. We offer outpatient, counseling and psychiatric services for mental health and substance use disorder, for the full lifespan of birth to the grave.
Our services are recovery focused and we partner with our clients to help them achieve their goals. We have residential programs, housing programs, and an open access center, which is very innovative because we do not have a waitlist. We have 24/7 in-person emergency response teams and we have Rhode Island Outreach, which is modeled on preventing unnecessary incarceration and unnecessary hospital use by dispatching a behavioral specialist and a medical specialist instead of police. People don’t even have to tell us who they are when we first meet them if that’s what they’re most comfortable with.
[The Rhode Island Outreach team can be reached by calling 401-846-1213].
Q: Why is it important to have these services in Newport County?
A: Newport County is like a tale of two cities. We have some very wealthy areas, and then some of the poorest areas in the state. We provide services to all of those segments of the population. They get relief of the mind and the heart to know that someone’s there for them.
Q: How will the CCBHC model help improve payment rates?
A: Right now, 65 percent of our services are funded through grants, which is not a sustainable model. The reason why we have that is because we are only reimbursed approximately 60 cents for every dollar of service that we provide. We are responsible for the 86,000 people in our community. We are the designated community mental health center, and we take that very seriously. The model for CCBHC is a prospective payment model. You develop a rate that’s based on the actual cost of delivering that service, and that’s the rate that you get reimbursed. Hopefully by Oct. 1 we will be billing our new rates, which means that as a nonprofit, all of the innovations that can happen will happen under this model because it has all the requirements for increased access of care.
Q: What initiatives do you hope to continue developing in the organization?
A: One of the things that is very challenging right now in health care and behavioral health care is the workforce crisis. We have been developing creative initiatives in partnership with the higher education schools in our areas to create pathways to entry level jobs. One of the initiatives we developed with CCRI allowed us to develop a program where people who are interested in being case managers can be trained. They get their courses at CCRI, they get on the job training with us in paid internships, and then they have a job at the end of it with us.
Right now we have our first five graduates of that program starting, and they are so excited and we are so excited to have them. Part of the solution to the workforce crisis is to get people interested in the helping professions again. My goal is to be the employer of choice for our region for health professions and to have entry level access and a pathway for growth within our industry.
