SUTS: Expanding Treatment at Telecare
/Our Plan for Building Skills, Staff, Practices & Programming
In January 2017, Telecare finalized a three-year plan to enrich and expand our substance use treatment services (SUTS) capabilities, with a specific focus on people who have a serious mental illness (SMI) and co-occurring substance use issues.
"Traditional substance use agencies are not necessarily prepared to serve people who have SMI," said Faith Richie, SVP of Development. "We have a 50-year history of working with SMI and complex needs and in the last few years, have made major steps forward in our ability to recruit, retain and support licensed staff, particularly psychiatrists, through our TLC Physician Services Organization. This will make it easier for us to step into more direct SUDS care, deliver Medication Assisted Treatment, and meet all of the site certification and staff licensing requirements to do this work and do it well."
We are pleased to introduce the highlights of this plan here and will continue to share enhancements and updates as we move forward in this work.
“Ultimately, we need to provide dedicated programming that combines mental health and substance use services directly to our clients in our programs. We believe that by doing that, we can better close the gap and help our clients holistically move forward in recovery – and dramatically improve their lives.”
Overarching Goals
Our vision for our SUTS plan is ambitious. We want to:
Increase quality of care
Increase access to care
Increase strategies for effective care
Reduce the stigma of care
Nurture a safe space for change
Create many options and avenues for clients to make positive behavioral change
Enable staff and clients to work proactively and collaboratively toward recovery
