Grant helps fund in-home behavioral-health pilot

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – With a $46,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation, VNS Home Health Services is launching an in-home behavioral-health pilot program, the first of its kind in the state.
This program will give patients access to behavioral-health services, needed by an estimated 350 patients currently on VNS service.
VNS Home Health Services is collaborating on the program with the University of Rhode Island Psychological Consultation Center, giving the home-health agency access to two doctorate of psychology students qualified to assess and treat at-risk behavioral-health patients. A patient who demonstrates signs of depression or anxiety will be evaluated by either a doctorate of psychology student with expertise in evidence-based, cognitive behavioral, motivational and family-systems therapy or a clinical nurse specialist with expertise in psychiatric and pharmacological management.
Major depressive disorder affects approximately 14.8 million American adults, or about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with any mental disorder meet criteria for two or more disorders. •

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