West Virginia Awards $500K for Mental Health Recovery Services

West Virginia invested in rural folks to help them keep their appointments. On October 14, Governor Patrick Morrisey announced a $500,000 Rural Health Transformation Program award to Potomac Highlands Guild. They’ve been around for 40+ years. 

The project funds new tech to expand mental health treatment and addiction recovery in eight rural counties.

Mental Health Ties with Addiction

Someone who takes drugs and has underlying mental health disorders needs to tackle all at one time. Dual diagnosis programs integrate therapy and clinical care. They work best when the same team tracks the progress over months rather than weeks.

The award targets these conditions like addiction, anxiety, depression and PTSD. Co-occurring mental health and substance use conditions feed each other and rural systems lose patients in the gaps between providers.

Someone discharged from intensive care can look stable for weeks but then quietly disengages. Tech that keeps care teams in regular contact is apt for rural towns where the nearest specialist may be hours away.

Funding Plans

The $500,000 project consists of wearable monitors, mobile tools and artificial intelligence to help clinicians spot early warning signs before crises and cut documentation time so providers can spend more of their day on direct care.

The tools will extend the reach of existing local clinical and peer support teams, not replace them.

Care Beyond The Mountain State

You don’t have to be in West Virginia to find mental health treatment, addiction recovery services or both.

To get started, browse our directory for locations anywhere in the USA. Feel free to also dial 800-908-4823 (Sponsored) to speak with an expert for guidance.

Author

Terri Beth Miller, PhD

Author, Award-Winning Post-Secondary Teacher

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Terri Beth received her PhD in English literature from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and is an educator and disability studies scholar. For more than a decade, she has written extensively in the fields of mental health and addiction recovery and fiercely advocates for the destigmatization of mental illness.

Editor

Peter Lee, PhD

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Peter W.Y. Lee is a writer and historian of American history during the Cold War. His primary focus is the relationship between youth and popular culture and its impact on U.S. society during the twentieth century. He has published widely on how the public has used popular culture as a mechanism to address political and social shifts throughout time