The Role of CCBHCs in Crisis Services and Systems

There is a powerful movement underway to make sure that everyone can get the help they need when they’re experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. This vision of a nationwide behavioral health crisis system is critical to improving the wellbeing of our nation and ensuring everyone can thrive.

Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) are a powerful resource for making this vision a reality. CCBHCs play a crucial role in the crisis system, assessing community needs, providing direct services, contributing to planning activities and actively partnering in local crisis system collaboration and coordination.

To help communities build a robust crisis system, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s Medical Director Institute released a white paper on maximizing the effectiveness of CCBHCs in crisis services and systems. It provides guidance to:

• Help CCBHC grantees, their service partners, and state and local policymakers understand and meet the basic CCBHC requirements for crisis services.
• Help current and emerging CCBHC leadership and staff — and their state and local policymakers — understand how to use prospective payment methodologies and CCBHC standards to maximize the effectiveness of crisis systems.
• Help implementation planners, system managers and policymakers use CCBHCs to meet their communities’ needs for customized crisis systems.

Download the paper to learn how CCBHCs can help ensure access to effective behavioral health crisis services nationwide.

Learn More About CCBHCs

• Check out the National Council’s CCBHC Success Center.
• Visit the CCBHC-E National Training and Technical Assistance Center for resources related to certification, sustainability and implementation of evidence-based practices.
• Visit the CCBHC State Technical Assistance Center to learn more about implementing and strengthening the CCBHC model in your state.
• Learn more about CCBHCs and Crisis Response Systems, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
• Learn how pending federal legislation can establish CCBHCs more permanently and expand access to comprehensive mental health and substance use care nationwide.
• Learn how the Prospective Payment System (PPS) helps unlock CCBHCs’ ability to increase the amount of people served, grow their services and hire more staff.