SYRACUSE — Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare’s (SBH) outpatient clinic at 329 N. Salina St. is now a federally certified community behavioral health clinic (CCBHC).

The certification enables SBH to expand its programs for individuals seeking help for substance use and mental-health disorders, the organization said.

It also includes new services for children and adolescents dealing with the same problems.

To accommodate these new services, SBH is adding a 9,500-square-foot child and adolescent center to its existing outpatient clinic, which offers open-access hours for care and family services.

SBH is one of 13 such CCBHCs in New York.

“A certified community behavioral health clinic is basically a place where people can go and receive comprehensive care … whether you’re a child or a you’re an older teenager or you’re an adult or you’re in the older years of your life. If you need help with a substance-abuse disorder or a mental-health disorder, or some combination of both, this is a place that you can come,” Jeremy Klemanski, president and CEO of Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare, said in his remarks at the formal-opening event held July 21.

Its services include outpatient care for substance abuse and mental health for children, adolescents, and adults; targeted case management, and 24-7 crisis-response teams.

“So, if you’re not here and it’s after hours and you’re struggling or there’s something going on in your life that’s causing you concern, there’s a team that can come to you and help stabilize the situation,” said Klemanski.

It’ll also include targeted services for veterans and ancillary withdrawal services.

About CCBHCs

As a CCBHC, SBH’s outpatient clinic meets requirements across six core areas, including staffing, availability and accessibility of services, care coordination, scope of services, quality, and organizational authority, governance and accreditation, according to SBH. The program provides accessible, “person-centered and trauma-informed” recovery care to adults, children, adolescents, and families.

A CCHBC is a federal demonstration project, Klemanski noted. 

New York was among eight states selected for the project “because New York State is working very hard to demonstrate creative and innovative ways to make access to substance abuse and mental-health care more available to people and to improve its efficacy,” said Klemanski. New York has 13 such CCHBCs that opened July 1.

CCBHCs were created through section 223 of the “Protecting Access to Medicaid Act” (PAMA), which established a demonstration program based on the “Excellence in Mental Health Act.” 

In addition to SBH’s existing outpatient services, the CCBHC will provide crisis mental-health services, emergency crisis intervention, crisis stabilization, targeted case management, psychiatric rehabilitation, and 24-hour mobile crisis services to individuals living in the Central New York region, the organization said.