Health care program for mentally ill starts through two Portland ...

People with serious mental illness are dying too soon -- and Portland nonprofit groups Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare and Outside In are teaming up to do something about it.

Bringing medical care to the mentally ill and using peer wellness specialists are among the methods Cascadia and Outside In will employ in a pilot program, Oregon Partnership for Health Integration. The four-year program kicked off with the arrival of a $1.6 million federal grant Sept. 30. ?

"This is an idea whose time has come," said John Duke, clinic director of the downtown-based Outside In, which offers medical care and other services to homeless youth.

Those with serious issues such as schizophrenia die 25 years younger on average, states a National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors 2012 report. ?

This demographic also has a higher prevalence of chronic conditions including diabetes and obesity, said Ashleigh Flynn, development and communications director at Cascadia. ?

Such chronic conditions often are preventable if people stop smoking, start exercising, improve their diet -- and see a doctor. But, many people with serious mental illness will not set foot in a medical clinic, Flynn said.

They "often face enormous barriers to care and self-care, which include poverty, isolation, lack of access, a fragmented and difficult to navigate care system," she said.

Through the new program, a mobile clinic will visit people who are in Cascadia programs downtown and elsewhere. Cascadia serves 12,000 people, providing services such as mental health and addictions treatment and permanent, subsidized housing.

Wellness specialists who have had their own challenges with mental illness and chronic disease will assist participants in achieving individualized health goals. The specialists also will serve as role models and as liaisons with health care professionals.

"If this is successful, it will become a model for the whole nation," Flynn said. ?

Cascadia and Outside In hope to put the program into action in two months. The grant will fund a doctor, a medical assistant and a clinic coordinator to run the program, which includes operating the mobile clinic 20 hours a week.

Through the program, the nonprofits will reach out to 600 people, including the homeless and those seeking to overcome substance abuse.

Meghan Caughey, the first to hold the title of senior director of Peer and Wellness Services at Cascadia, will train the program's peer specialists.

Caughey said she and the specialists will be able to connect with people in the program because they can relate. She takes an antipsychotic medication known for leading to diabetes because of factors including weight gain.

"We understand how discouraging it can be to be trying to live a better quality of life and have these issues," Caughey said.

She started hearing and seeing things that other people did not when she was 19 and since has undergone electro-shock therapy and been hospitalized more than 100 times for psychiatric issues.

"It was a matter of time where I would either kill myself or have a major life change," said Caughey, 56. "I did not want to die. I wanted to live."

The Southeast Portland resident said she made the conscious choice to invest her energy into "the part of her that wants to heal, that wants to love."

While Caughey and her team will handle participants' goals, organizers will handle program goals. Targets to hit after a year include: 30 percent of overweight program participants will reduce their body mass index, and 20 percent of program participants who use tobacco will be in cessation classes.

"Out ultimate goal is we would like for all of the people that we are serving to have health measures and health outcomes equal to or better than people in the general population in the same age range," Duke said.

To inspire such changes across the nation, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration created the Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration program three years ago. This year,? the administration offered 32 grant awards through its program, totaling $35.8 million. ?

Cascadia and Outside In landed one of them, and their on-site care and peer advocacy made their program stand out, Duke said.

"We hope to demonstrate some innovative practices," he said, "and more effective health outcomes."

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/10/health_care_program_for_mental.html

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