Compass Health Featured in Puget Sound Business Journal, 425 Business and WhatcomTalk

While we continue to navigate the impact of COVID-19, Compass Health has been hard at work making sure we can continue to provide services to those in need. Below, you’ll find a range of recent media coverage that features our latest efforts.

Compass Health Funding Announcement

Behind any great organization is a team of a partners and a generous community. We’re incredibly thankful for the philanthropic donations and federal, state and local grants that have helped support our behavioral health outreach related to COVID-19, including implementation of Compass Health Bridge.

You can read more about this story in the Puget Sound Business Journal below:

“We know that times of stress and uncertainty are especially challenging for those dealing with mental health and substance use disorder issues, so it’s imperative for us to continue counseling and treatment,” said Camis Milam, MD, Compass Health chief medical officer.

Compass Health is a community healthcare organization that combines medical care with behavioral health services. The organization typically serves around 17,000 people a year. Between September 2019 and May, Compass Health saw a 1,100% increase in use of billable telehealth services, going from 467 to 5,814. Around 40% of their services in May utilized telehealth services.

Read the full article here.

And in 425 Business:

“We see Bridge as an increasingly important tool that allows us to expand access to treatment for underserved communities, including communities of color and the growing numbers of individuals that are expected to qualify for Medicaid,” Sebastian said in a release. “The funding we’ve received will allow us to continue to make meaningful change across the five counties we serve, meaning we can reach people in rural communities, or people who might seek our services for the first time.”

The organization’s frontline strategy also includes its MCOT crisis outreach teams and triage centers that help people experiencing behavioral health crises or pre-crisis symptoms and refer them to services.

Read the full article here.

WhatcomTalk Features MCOT

Finally, we’re thrilled to share this deep dive into our MCOT program, featured in WhatcomTalk. Here, Brandon Foister our director of Whatcom County outpatient services and director of emergency services, and Amy Pereira, our associate director of crisis response and stabilization share different ways that MCOT bridges the gaps between services and the people who need them most.

Check out an excerpt from the article here:

The outreach team focuses on marginalized community members with hopes to divert them out of trouble and into the care they need. “We work on meeting the needs of what I would define as historically under-served communities, whether we’re talking about their location in the county, their mental health status, even potentially their ethnicity,” says Foister. “We’re working to keep individuals out of the emergency departments and jails by assessing the situation and giving the appropriate referrals.”

With so many people needing so many services, the team has created a network of allies. “We’re working in direct communication with law enforcement. An officer can call the team directly and speak with a team member to coordinate a response, whether it’s the team going out after the fact, or meeting them on scene,” Pereira says. “One of the partnerships that we’ve had is with PeaceHealth, and we work really closely alongside Whatcom Treatment Center, Pioneer Human Services, even with Compass Health Outreach, just to get people connected with services.”

 Read the full article here.