North Country Behavioral Healthcare Network is a provider network in Northern New York committed to strengthening behavioral health services in the region. The Network is charged with keeping the membership informed and involved. It has
  led to the establishment of many exciting new relationships and opportunities for the region, and is certain to continue capturing the attention and resources needed to keep the North Country's behavioral healthcare system well positioned for a strong future.  
     
 
Mission, Values & Vision
  Mission – the North Country Behavioral Healthcare Network (NCBHN) connects and supports behavioral health providers to strengthen the service delivery system in Northern New York.

Values – NCBHN is committed to and accountable for achieving excellence through collaboration built on the mutual trust, respect and values of our partner organizations.

Vision – NCBHN will be widely recognized as a leading voice for Northern New York’s behavioral healthcare continuum, bringing the necessary resources for the connection of advocacy efforts, technology development, and best practices amongst partners.

Membership
  Click here to view a list of our current members.

Programs & Initiatives
  Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization – Behavioral Health Committee

The Behavioral Health Committee is one of four committees formed by the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization (FDRHPO), a not-for-profit corporation recently formed in Jefferson County, New York as part of a US Department of Defense pilot program that is exploring the feasibility of building cooperative health care arrangements between military installations and local non-military health care systems. Staffed by the Network, the FDRHPO Behavioral Health Committee will focus on planning and evaluating the provision of behavioral health care service to Fort Drum military personnel, their families and residents of the communities surrounding Fort Drum.

HEARTH: Helping Eradicate All Roads To Homelessness

Jefferson Country Department of Social Services, in collaboration with Lewis County Department of Social Services and St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services, is requesting $3,802,977.33 to support their initiative, Helping Eradicate All Roads To Homelessness (HEARTH), which will serve those struggling with current or potential homelessness in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties in Northern New York. It is anticipated that 1,710 individuals and families will benefit from HPRP funds. The goal of the HEARTH program is to offer financial assistance to those individuals and families struggling with obtaining/maintaining stable housing, while simultaneously providing the tools necessary for consumers to eventually live independently. The HEARTH program will provide assistance to these populations within three program areas: Prevention, Diversion and Rapid Re-housing. Prevention is geared toward persons who are currently housed but at risk of becoming homeless. HEARTH prevention will assess immediate housing needs, explore housing options and resources, provide flexible financial assistance, and, when appropriate, offer voluntary case management services focused on housing stabilization. Diversion provides assistance to persons who have applied for shelter or are about to be released from an institution (such as hospital, mental health or correctional facility). The diversion program helps people find stable housing to avoid a homeless situation. Rapid re-housing will help homeless persons quickly move into rental housing. The HEARTH project is a uniquely rural proposal meeting the needs of three counties, and realizes significant administrative efficiencies through the collaboration of three Social Services districts, five community based non-profits and use of a fiscal intermediary to oversee project management. We note here that as a result of the collaborative nature of the project, direct services spending (short and medium term rental assistance, security deposits, rental/utility arrears, moving cost assistance, and motel/hotel vouchers) is budgeted at 68.2%, while support services are 29.3% and administration is 2.5% of program costs. Significant in-kind contributions from all participants will also support the project. Jefferson County Department of Social Services, lead agency for the HEARTH program, can immediately commence the project upon notification of funding.

New York State Health Foundation: Central North County Mental HealthNet

The Central North Country Mental HealthNet is a coalition of 10 organizations and agencies providing services to older persons resident in the rural Central North Country area of New York State. Led by the North Country Behavioral Health Care Network, three member clinics providing direct mental health/substance abuse (MH/SA) services, five human service agencies in Franklin County, and the Institute of Gerontology at the University at Albany will partner to expand local MH/SA infrastructure and services to needy individuals over 60 who are not currently accessing the system and to evaluate the impact of such expansion.
The project has four primary goals:
  1. to strengthen and reorganize the existing community senior services infrastructure, in order to support the expansion and improvement of MH/SA services;
  2. to improve the accessibility, visibility, availability, utilization, follow-up, effectiveness, and general quality of MH/SA services through promotion and training;
  3. to deliver and promote evidence-based direct MH/SA services through the provision/promotion of screening, referral, assessment, brief evidence-based treatment, and care management to older adults; and
  4. to evaluate the process and outcomes by measuring and evaluating process/program fidelity, impact on service utilization, and conducting a trial of a chosen evidence based-intervention to determine if its efficacy generalizes to this population.

The project will be sustainable through a rigorous training program that will provide the community with multiple individuals located in a variety of senior service clinics and agencies who will be qualified to continue the program established in this project.

North Country Network of Care for Behavioral Health

The North Country Network of Care for Behavioral Health is an initiative that created a web-based “Network of Care” for Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties in Northern New York. Each county Network of Care website provides individuals, families and care providers easy online access to information about mental health, substance abuse and developmental disability services in the region. The Network is providing data collection and verification services, as well as technical assistance to the four counties’ community services directors. Essex and Franklin county sites went live in January 2007. It is anticipated that St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties will go live by March 2007. Visit www.northcountrynetworkofcare.org for more information.

Points North Housing Continuum of Care

The Points North Housing Continuum of Care is comprised of representatives of more than 50 agencies, faith-based groups and individuals concerned with meeting the needs of the homeless and/or those at risk of homelessness in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, New York. The group recently received funding for two initiatives: the Shelter Plus Care program and the Homeless Management Information System.
  The Shelter Plus Care program offers qualified Jefferson County residents (disabled persons, including those with mental health and/or substance abuse problems) a rental voucher for up to fair market value if the client agrees to accept other in-kind support services available to them, including health care, child care, education support, case management, etc. The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a web-based database that will allow participating providers to collect data on the homeless and access information about resources available throughout the region. Ultimately, the HMIS will help the Points North Housing Continuum of Care to develop a more accurate view of the severity of the homeless problem in Northern New York, and to maximize resources available.

History
  Mental health and chemical dependency providers were first called together in January 1996 through the efforts of former St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation Center CEO, ARTHUR M. JOHNSON, S.A. Father Johnson's visionary leadership brought together providers from throughout a six-county region in Northern New York to discuss and assess the value of network formation. In light of the dynamic and ever changing atmosphere of healthcare delivery, it was agreed that cooperation and collaboration would be the only way for providers to survive and thrive. The Network incorporated in 1997 as Northern New York Rural Health Institute, (doing business as North Country Behavioral Healthcare Network), and continues today as a leading voice for Northern New York’s behavioral healthcare continuum.

The Network receives funding from the New York State Office of Rural Health’s “Rural Health Network Development” program. It also has twice been chosen (in ’99 and ’06) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Office of Rural Health Policy to be recipient of a Rural Health Development grant.