ONEIDA, N.Y. — Excellus BlueCross BlueShield has won a $150,000 Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Member and Community Health Improvement (MACHI) grant to support increased access to behavioral-health services at Oneida Health.

The grant will award the funds over a three-year period to establish services to address mental health, substance abuse, or age-specific women’s behavioral-health conditions of Oneida Health patients receiving care at its Women’s Health practice, Lullaby Center, or emergency department.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the mental and behavioral health crisis we are facing in our communities,” Oneida Health President and CEO Jonathan Schiller said in a news release. “The need for coordinated behavioral-health services has never been greater and represents a significant clinical health improvement priority for our medical staff and clinical team. Through the support provided by Excellus BCBS, we will be able to connect a critical network of services and resources that already exist within our communities to improve the outcomes and lives of our patients.”

The new Women’s Care Coordination Program at Oneida Health helps bridge the gap between patients and access to mental health and substance-abuse treatment services through a care-coordinated model. Through a single point of contact, patients can receive coordinated care from a range of community resources and services available for women including mental-health and substance-abuse counseling, bereavement support, transportation, domestic violence advocacy, care management, and other community services.

The program aims to increase depression screenings for maternity and gynecological patients by 70 percent and reduce return emergency-department visits of those presenting with behavioral and mental-health conditions by 17 percent. Achieving those goals will drive early detection and treatment of behavioral-health conditions and reduction in unnecessary return visits to the emergency department.

“We thank Excellus BCBS for their shared vision in addressing opportunities to improve the overall health of our communities,” Schiller said. “This program would not be possible without their support.”

The MACHI grant program provides funding to local, nonprofit organizations that promote healthier communities and supports initiatives with specific objectives and measurable outcomes for improving health.

“Providing access to high-quality health care is core to our mission as a nonprofit health plan,” Eve Van de Wal, Excellus regional president for the Mohawk Valley region, said. “We are excited to partner with Oneida Health to support this vital behavioral health program that addresses the needs of our region by increasing access to mental health and substance-use services.”

Oneida Health is a regional health-care system that includes a hospital, primary and specialty care, physical rehabilitation, and skilled-nursing services.

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and has more than 1.5 million members in upstate New York.