A patient sitting in the emergency department for eight hours waiting for a psychiatric care referral is not likely to ultimately get that care. That much became apparent to the leadership at ChristianaCare as they and other healthcare providers worked to revamp the mental and behavioral health referral process. What’s more likely, the stakeholders found, is the patient will become frustrated with the process and leave before getting treatment. And it’s that very outcome that’s hampers overall patient wellness in various Medicaid populations across the country. The Medicaid Transformation Project, launched two years ago by former CMS head Andy Slavitt and health tech firm AVIA, sought to change that and other healthcare problems. The project aims to address the most pressing social health needs for vulnerable patient populations, beginning with the Medicaid population.

ChristianaCare will supply health workers to aid the New Castle County Police in an expanded Behavioral Health Unit. Six caregivers: a mental health professional, two case managers, a license clinician, a registered nurse, and a child victim advocate will begin teaming up with NCCPD this fall. Their lead tasks will be centered on aiding the mental health and substance abuse disorder issues in the county, according to ChristianaCare Vice President Erin Booker. "The police department has seen increased calls for psychiatric crisis needs, so this really arms them with more support to go out and give the community really what they need and get them connected into treatment and ensure that their mental health and substance use disorder needs are being met." Booker said these issues have come into the forefront as pandemic-related restrictions continue to affect people in all aspects of their lives. "We know that in COVID there has been a significant increase with depression and anxiety. We've seen increases in overdoses. We know there is a very large impact because of isolated, and these types of diseases become exacerbated in isolation."

Community SOS is the brainchild of ChristianaCare’s Vice President of Community Health and Engagement Erin Booker. ChristianaCare was already working to get overdose patients into treatment through its emergency department program Project Engage. But Booker says there were still gaps in care. “So this program was specifically designed to be that next step for the patients who say no, because very often they’re just not in the place in the ED to say yes," said Booker. "They’ve just had an overdose. They’re certainly not feeling well and they leave.”

The 302 visits with health care professionals at ChristianaCare to talk about community health care initiatives.