High Plains Mental Health Center
High Plains Mental Health Center has announced its Connections For Life program reopened in Hays on April 1.
Services are based at the Hays Woodhaven site, 1412 E. 29th, and open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
This program is an affiliate of OneCare Kansas and offers a comprehensive and intense method of care coordination for qualifying Kansas Medicaid members.
The goal of this program is to integrate and coordinate all mental and physical health services and supports for individuals with complex chronic conditions.
These services do not replacing existing acute care and long-term services and supports, but are layered over them to ensure well-coordinated care, without gaps and duplicative services.
Qualifying diagnoses include paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and asthma. Referrals to this program can be made by a Medicaid Managed Care Organization, or an existing mental or physical health care provider.
Hospital emergency room staff also can refer to this program. Once a referral is made, the patient will be contacted by a KanCare MCO representative. This program previously operated from 2014 to 2016, before being discontinued by the state of Kansas.
“We are pleased this program will again be available to help coordinate care for Northwest Kansas residents with complex care needs,” said Sonja Stice, program manager. “We are optimistic this program will improve health care delivery and lead to better outcomes.”
Typically, clients can expect one appointment per month under this program, but additional care will be arranged as needed.
This program is available to residents of the 20 northwest Kansas counties covered by High Plains: Cheyenne, Decatur, Ellis, Gove, Graham, Logan, Ness, Norton, Osborne, Phillips, Rawlins, Rooks, Rush, Russell, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Thomas, Trego and Wallace.
For more information about this program, find Connections For Life on Facebook, or call 785-621-2261.