Mental Health Access in Rural Southwestern Wisconsin

Project Description Narrative:

Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative Phase II National and transnational agencies including CDC, WHO, and the British NHS are adopting well-being scales as a general measure of population-based mental health. Well-being is a composite of several measures, however a key component is the number of days that individuals report good mental health. In addition, in the U.S., data indicate that one in four adults experience a diagnosable mental illness each year, but more than half will not seek treatment. Recognizing an immediate need to improve overall mental and behavioral health outcomes in the Grant County, Green County, Iowa County, Lafayette County and Richland County communities, the project team aims to reduce the rate of adults experiencing 14 or more days of poor mental health by 10% within the five-county region in southwestern Wisconsin by:

• Increasing the acceptability of mental health treatment across the adult population of the five-county region so that more people will be willing to utilize mental health services
• Increasing the accessibility of mental health treatment through development of conduits to a comprehensive network of services
• Increasing the availability of mental health services so that people can receive timely and appropriate care

This project is part of AHW's Advancing Behavioral Health Initiative, an eight-year, $20 million initiative bringing together 10 community coalitions from across Wisconsin to address pressing mental health needs within their communities. The initiative is designed in three phases, providing a funded planning year, a five-year implementation period, and a two-year sustainable transformation phase.