Round 3: Launch Ready

Round 3: Tahoe Forest Hospital District

Tahoe Forest Hospital District to fund Hospital-Based Outpatient Treatment with 600 slots

Highlights

The Tahoe Forest Hospital District (TFHD) is using BHCIP Round 3: Launch Ready funds to develop a new space that will increase the capacity of its current outpatient program by 150 percent. This expansion will allow TFHD to offer not only standard outpatient therapy, but also Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) group therapy, which has been shown to be as effective as residential treatment, but at a much lower cost. The region served by TFHD covers five counties spread across 3,500 square miles, has some of the highest rates statewide of mental illness and substance use disorders, and is a designated health professional shortage area for mental health and psychiatry providers. The expanded Tahoe Forest Hospital District facility will help to alleviate that strain.

Other behavioral health services TFHD includes medication-assisted treatment (MAT), a psychiatric nurse practitioner, a pediatric and an adult behavioral health intensivist, and a bilingual/bicultural behavioral health therapist who will provide treatment through primary care and family medicine services. BHCIP funding will allow for the addition of six dedicated behavioral health rooms, where roughly 600 additional patients will receive treatment. In addition, the expansion will provide bilingual and bicultural mental health treatment and substance use support for anyone in need over the age of six. Medi-Cal recipients in Placer and Nevada counties are guaranteed services regardless of their ability to pay.

A letter of support from Nevada and Placer County supervisors and the mayor of Truckee noted that the project “will address longstanding systemic inadequacies in care and improve access to evidence based behavioral health treatment to this underserved community. As the demand for mental health support increases, matching individuals to the right level of care has never been more essential to improving health outcomes and patient quality of life.”