Billings OBGYN Associates 2025

Improving Perinatal Mental Health in Southeastern Montana

Billings OB/GYN Associates (BOBGYN) will implement The Meadowlark Initiative in Billings and surrounding communities in Southeastern Montana. BOBGYN delivers an average of 150 babies per month at St. Vincent Regional Hospital, which constitutes roughly 75% of the Billings market. The project will improve perinatal outcomes by adopting the Meadowlark model of care, including routine screening and prompt treatment for mental health and substance use issues. BOBGYN has hired a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner who is already seeing patients. BOBGYN will use grant funds to hire a care coordinator to work with Meadowlark patients and intends to build a larger behavioral health team during the grant term. St. Vincent Regional Hospital is the main partner in this project.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

24 month

2025

Logan Health - Whitefish 2025

LHW Meadowlark Initiative Phase 1

Logan Health Whitefish is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital that provides services to community members in Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Canyon communities, and towns along the Burlington Northern line to Eureka. Through this grant, Logan Health Whitefish will implement the Meadowlark model of care in a newly acquired OB/Gyn clinic in Whitefish, making Meadowlark care standard practice in this clinic, as it is at Logan Health Medical Center. Grant funds will support a full-time care coordinator. Partners include the Early Childhood Coalition of Flathead Valley, Flathead Valley Perinatal Mental Health Coalition, the Department of Child and Family Services, Zero to Five Collaborative of Lincoln County, Blackfeet Meadowlark Initiative Team, the Nurturing Center, Concert Health, and Flathead City/County Health Department.

Grant Amount

$149,928

Term

24 month

2025

Providence St. Joseph Medical Center 2025

Journey of Hope Continuation

Providence St. Joseph Medical Center serves the Polson area and delivers on average 220 babies annually. This project will continue developing the center's participation in The Meadowlark Initiative. The center will refine clinical processes, workflows, policy, and funding options to sustain the Meadowlark care model beyond the grant term. Partners include the Lake County Health Department, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Health and Social Services, the Families First Learning Lab, YWCA, Flathead Maternal Mental Health Coalition, and St. Luke's Community Hospital. Grant funds will provide partial salary support for key Meadowlark positions and support for training and travelling to meetings.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2025

Billings Clinic 2024

Expanding Empaths: Implementing Collaborative Care in the Perinatal Care Setting

Billings Clinic is a not-for-profit, community-owned and governed, multi-specialty group practice serving multiple regions throughout southeast and south-central Montana, including Crow and Northern Cheyenne Tribal Members. This project will expand and transition Billings Clinic's current reproductive behavioral health care program to an integrated behavioral health model. Billings Clinic will implement Collaborative Care services in its OB/GYN clinic to provide routine screening, care management, peer support, and therapeutic and psychiatric services for perinatal women. Grant funds will support a full-time behavioral health care manager and a portion of the project director's salary. Billings Clinic actively partners with One Health, which provides a recovery doula to OB/GYN patients.

Grant Amount

$149,987

Term

24 month

2024

Benefis Health System Foundation 2023

Meadowlark Initiative – Benefis Hospitals

Benefis Hospital will continue participating in The Meadowlark Initiative, expanding the mental health services and care coordination it provides to pregnant women in Great Falls and the surrounding areas. Benefis will use this grant mainly to hire an additional licensed behavioral health provider. The new provider will allow the site to treat more patients and shorten wait times for counseling services. Benefis will sustain the position through billing insurance. Partners include Great Falls OB/GYN Associates, Cascade City-County Health Department, and DPHHS Child and Family Services.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2023

Blackfeet Tribal Health 2023

Blackfeet Meadowlark Initiative

The Blackfeet Tribal Health Department will continue participating in The Meadowlark Initiative and expand integrated, team-based care to pregnant women on the Blackfeet Reservation. Through a partnership with the Women's Clinic at the Indian Health Service (IHS) Blackfeet Community Hospital, Blackfeet Tribal Health will provide behavioral health services to women with mental health issues or substance use disorders. Grant funds will support a care coordinator who will help women access community-based resources to address their social needs. Care will be coordinated with Logan Health in Kalispell and Benefis Health System in Great Falls when appropriate. Partners include IHS, Blackfeet Child Protective Services, and many programs under Blackfeet Tribal Health.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2023

Northeast Montana Health Services 2023

Northeast Montana Health Services Meadowlark Initiative

Northeast Montana Health Services (NEMHS) is a seven-facility health system, including two critical access hospitals, two primary care clinics, two retail pharmacies, and a long-term care facility, serving Roosevelt County and the Fort Peck reservation in Northeast Montana. Through this project, NEMHS will implement The Meadowlark Initiative® in their two primary care clinics in Wolf Point and Poplar. NEMHS will implement a team-based approach to care for pregnant women, including universal health screening, embedded behavioral health and care coordination supports, robust community partnerships, and defined referral pathways to higher-level treatment when necessary. MHCF contractors and staff will provide technical assistance on the clinical model, and JG Research and Evaluation will provide data collection and analysis support. Grant funds will hire a care coordination and behavioral health provider. Partnerships for this project include Roosevelt County Health Department, Fort Peck Tribal Health Department, Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center, Indian Health Services, Spotted Bull Treatment Center, the Fort Peck Tribes Health Promotion Disease Prevention Program, and Red Bird Women's Shelter.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

36 month

2023

Rocky Boy Health Board 2023

Nurturing Healthy Moms for Bright Futures

Rocky Boy Health Center (RBHC) is a tribally-led system that provides health care services to the community on the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana. RBHC offers a full suite of health care and services for over 4,000 people with over 180 employees. The project will establish a model of care that efficiently and effectively tracks and supports high-risk prenatal patients, guiding them through the health care system and other essential support programs. Funding will deploy a specialized RN care coordinator to provide personalized care, collaborating seamlessly with RBHC and external partners, including Northern Montana Hospital, Benefis Hospital, and OB/GYN specialists who provide prenatal services, behavioral health providers, and various tribal programs. By joining The Meadowlark Initiative®, RBHC aspires to measurably improve outcomes for prenatal patients, forging a healthier and more empowered community.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

24 month

2023

Bozeman Health Foundation 2022

Perinatal Substance Abuse in Southwest Montana: An Integrated Model

Bozeman Health will support pregnant women with behavioral health issues by expanding and strengthening The Meadowlark Initiative model of care in its Women’s Specialty Clinic. The Meadowlark Initiative provides routine screening in prenatal care for mental health issues and substance use disorders and prompt access to treatment and additional community support if needed. Building on a previous grant, this project will focus on implementing collaborative care and building partnerships with community organizations that serve pregnant women and families. Grant funds will support staff salaries and a consultant who will help Bozeman Health implement the Meadowlark Initiative model of care. Community and organization partnerships will be developed throughout the course of the project.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2022

Kalispell Regional Medical Center Inc. dba Logan Health Medical Center 2022

LHMC Meadowlark Phase 3

Logan Health will expand its Meadowlark Initiative from its midwifery clinic into its maternal-fetal medicine clinic and its newly acquired obstetrics practice, Logan Health OB/GYN. This project will implement Meadowlark’s collaborative care model by adding a full-time counselor and a part-time care coordinator to Logan Health’s staff to support women and families across its clinics. Funding will support the project staff and a consultant to provide technical assistance on Meadowlark’s collaborative care model. This is the third Meadowlark project supported at Logan Health since 2017. Over the years, the hospital has developed extensive partnerships with community coalitions and organizations that provide social support to pregnant women and their families. A few identified collaborators on this project include the Early Childhood Coalition of Flathead Valley and the Flathead Valley Perinatal Mental Health Coalition.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2022

Northern Montana Health Care 2022

Meadowlark Initiative Implementation at Northern Montana Hospital

Northern Montana Hospital (Northern) will implement The Meadowlark Initiative to decrease drug use in pregnancy, reduce child removals, identify individual needs for each patient and their family, and build a safe team-based approach to support better perinatal outcomes. Northern will coordinate OB/GYN, family practice, and behavioral health providers and provide care coordination to identify and connect resources from the community to patients when needs are identified. Funding will support a care coordinator and licensed addiction counselor, and the project will also draw on Northern's behavioral health team. Project partners include Rocky Boy Health Center and Sweet Home Medical Center.

Grant Amount

$175,000

Term

24 month

2022

St. Luke Community Healthcare Foundation 2022

Meadowlark Initiative

St. Luke Community Healthcare, located on the Flathead Reservation in Ronan, Montana, used this grant to improve implementation of the Meadowlark model of care, aiming to enhance the behavioral health services it provides to women and families on the reservation. This project was successful in setting up a dashboard and automating data extraction to facilitate the monitoring of OB patients’ care; implementing routine screenings for substance use disorders, depression, and anxiety; ensuring that patients receive a prompt referral when needed; strengthening care coordination for pregnant women and families; and forging community partnerships to maximize access to resources. The registered nurse care manager, licensed clinical social worker, and licensed clinical professional counselor collaborated closely to review patient caseloads with providers and ensure that patients receive the care they need, particularly postpartum care throughout the first year. St. Luke Community Healthcare is committed to sustaining this program and the required positions to continue serving women and families on the reservation.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2022

St. Peter's Health Foundation 2022

Parental Mental Health Support Program Expansion

St. Peter's Health (SPH) will expand and strengthen its established Meadowlark Initiative program. This project will increase evidence-based screening cadence and access to services and enhance team-based care by expanding specialized support services. SPH will hire a licensed addiction counselor and behavioral health navigator and embed these positions into the obstetrics clinic to provide outpatient substance use and mental health services. The addition of the licensed addiction counselor position will allow SPH's addiction medicine and behavioral health providers to work to the top of their licensure, and the behavioral health navigator will assist in identifying social needs, connecting patients to the appropriate level of care, facilitating referrals, and ensuring continuity of care. Grant funds will support the behavioral health navigator's salary. Over the past several years, SPH has formed strong relationships with community partners, including other health care providers, mental health providers, DPHHS Child and Family Services, Lewis & Clark County Home Visiting Program, and many community-based organizations which will help support the effectiveness of this project.

Grant Amount

$100,000

Term

24 month

2022

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies - The Montana Coalition 2021

Building Bridges for Better Births

Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies – The Montana Coalition (HMHB-MT) used this grant for its Building Bridges for Better Births (B4) project to improve community-based support systems for families from pregnancy to the postpartum period. B4 focuses on women and families with behavioral health conditions in the perinatal period. Through this grant, HMHB-MT contributed to the Meadowlark Initiative® by facilitating new relationships between perinatal providers, social service providers, local health departments, and other community organizations. These community teams collaborate to identify resources to help meet the unique needs of each family.

Grant Amount

$74,601

Term

24 month

2021

Holy Rosary Healthcare Foundation 2021

Eastern Montana Perinatal Behavioral Health

Holy Rosary Healthcare will join the Meadowlark Initiative and improve access to mental health and substance use disorder care for pregnant women in Miles City and Eastern Montana. The project will integrate behavioral health services into Holy Rosary’s obstetrics clinic. As part of this project, Holy Rosary Healthcare will hire a care coordinator to work directly with patients and foster connections with social service organizations in the community. In addition to hiring a new staff person, grant funding will help establish telepsychiatry services and support coaching from the National Council for Behavioral Health to ensure the project’s success and sustainability. Partners include the Montana Health Network, the Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center, and Rimrock Foundation.

Grant Amount

$148,360

Term

24 month

2021

One Health 2021

Sacred Families Rosebud County

The Sacred Families team at One Health Ashland partnered with health care providers in the region to reach pregnant women and families experiencing substance use disorders or mental health issues. The goals of this project were to provide comprehensive, compassionate care to families; improve maternal and family outcomes; reduce newborn drug exposure, neonatal abstinence syndrome, and perinatal complications; and keep families together and out of the foster care system. As the team worked to build the program, they discovered significant challenges that forced them to change their approach. Challenges in this area included a lack of transportation for patients to get to the clinic; problems finding affordable, well-located office spaces; difficulties recruiting community health workers and nurses due to the low pay offered; and a small pool of qualified applicants. In light of these challenges, One Health Bighorn stepped in to provide outreach services to the Ashland community to ensure that women and families have continued access to Meadowlark care.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

24 month

2021

One Health 2021

Sacred Families Fergus County

The Sacred Families Team at One Health Lewistown used this grant to partner with health care providers in the region to reach pregnant women and families experiencing substance use disorders or mental health issues. The goal was to provide comprehensive, compassionate care to families; improve maternal and family outcomes; reduce newborn drug exposure, neonatal abstinence syndrome, and perinatal complications; and keep families together and out of the foster care system. Funds were used to hire a care coordinator, who was later transitioned to a peer support recovery doula to provide care coordination and peer services. The project successfully implemented care pathways and screening protocols. It also completed a Centering Pregnancy pilot, which involves bringing eight to 10 women together to receive prenatal care from a team of providers and support staff. The team's proposal for this innovative model currently has Medicaid pending approval and could ultimately help provide long-term sustainability for the project. One Health is also exploring billing for lactation counseling and education, which could open the door to delivering other critical behavioral health services. Challenges included getting all stakeholders together for weekly huddles and the need for more staff training in perinatal mental health and substance use to facilitate screening, brief interventions, and referral to treatment. The team is working on plans to resolve both of these issues.

Grant Amount

$135,200

Term

24 month

2021

One Health 2021

Sacred Families Blaine County

One Health - Chinook/Harlem is a federally qualified health center that serves the communities of Blaine County. Through this grant, One Health will join The Meadowlark Initiative and provide routine screening and treatment for substance use disorders as part of prenatal and postpartum care. The Sacred Families Team at One Health will partner with health care providers in the region to provide screening, outpatient care, referrals for specialty care when needed. They will also coordinate community services for pregnant patients with mental health and substance use disorders at One Health and clinics that offer prenatal care in the region. The team will develop a coalition of county health and social service providers to design a community-wide structured approach to screen and provide care coordination to address the social needs of women and families. A care coordinator hired through this grant will travel across the county to connect expecting families seen in other practices for prenatal care with a peer support specialist and behavioral health provider, creating a bridge to a new and expanded, coordinated community of care. Funding will support the peer support specialist and care coordinator positions to successfully implement the project work plan, data reporting, and offer evidence-based patient services. Partners include Blaine County Public Health, WIC, and SPROUTS.

Grant Amount

$135,200

Term

24 month

2021

Providence Montana Health Foundation 2021

Providence St. Joseph Medical Center’s Journey of Hope

Providence St. Joseph Medical Center (SJMC) is a critical access hospital with a rural health clinic and an assisted living center located in Polson within the Flathead Indian reservation, serving Lake County residents. SJMC provides prenatal and postpartum care in a coordinated, team-based approach and delivers approximately 175-200 babies per year by two board-certified OB-GYN physicians. SJMC's Journey of Hope project will integrate existing initiatives (Wrapped in Hope, Bridge to Hope, and Medication Assisted Treatment) within The Meadowlark Initiative® model. The overall goal is to address pregnant and postpartum women's substance use disorder and behavioral health needs, providing non-judgmental, quality health care, recovery support, resources, and referrals. Journey of Hope will focus on building and strengthening the bonds between a mother and infant; building trust with providers and the health care system; building healthy support systems to allow for infants to stay in the custody of their biological parents; and referrals to community resources for patients to address the social determinants of health. Grant funds will support behavioral health and care coordination staffing costs to successfully implement the project work plan, data reporting, and offer evidence-based patient services. Project staff will work closely with the wide range of agencies and organizations that serve impacted families, including Tribal Child Protective Services, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Child and Family Services, Drug Endangered Children Task Force, Drug Court, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Health Services, and Lake County Public Health.

Grant Amount

$150,000

Term

24 month

2021