Care Coordination Unit
The Care Coordination Unit consists of four distinct teams – Adult Care Coordination, Child Care Coordination, DD Care Coordination and a Geriatric Specialty Team.
Adult Care Coordination
The Adult Care Coordination (ACC) team consists of one part time psychiatrist, three nurses and seven social workers. This team has two main functions. One function of this unit is to coordinate care for mentally ill and substance-abusing adults who are being discharged from state and private hospitals and to link them to private providers in the community. The team provides interim care to make sure service needs are met while the linkage process is taking place. Another key role of this team is the nurse liaison position. One nurse partners with the four state hospitals (Dorothea Dix, John Umstead, Cherry, Broughton) to ensure joint discharge planning is occurring and appropriate aftercare services are being secured to help ensure positive outcomes for Wake County consumers.
Child Care Coordination
The Child Care Coordination (CCC) team consists of psychiatric nurses and mental health professionals. This team has multiple functions including ensuring services, monitoring treatment outcomes and providing technical assistance to providers. This team focuses on ensuring consumers are linked to appropriate services by periodic monitoring of plan implementation and treatment outcomes, as well as collecting data regarding system of care processes through the ensuror of services role. The team is also available to assist the mental health provider network in supporting consumers who may be most at risk of decompensation and in need of intensive support. The team provides liaison services between the LME, area programs and contract agencies, including state and local hospitals. These liaison services ensure joint discharge planning is occurring, hospital bed days are being appropriately use, and appropriate aftercare services are being secured to ensure positive outcomes for Wake County consumers.
Developmental Disabilities Care Coordination
The DD Care Coordination Unit consists of three distinct teams – Adult DD Care Coordination, Child DD Care Coordination and Intensive DD Adult Care Coordination. These teams' primary functions are to coordinate services for consumers with developmental disabilities who live in the community. This includes consumers with developmental disabilities being discharged from mental retardation institutions, hospitals and other Intermediate Care Facilities (ICFs). They provide supports to the community providers, families and consumers so they may live as independently as possible. They ensure that consumers are linked to services in the community, assisting in any problems, and provide monitoring and technical assistance as needed. Consultation, training and education for community providers and consumers is provided on an ongoing basis.
Geriatric Specialty Team
The Geriatric/Adult Mental Health Specialty Team provides consultation, education, training and technical assistance to staff and caregivers in Long Term Care facilities, including Nursing Homes, Adult Care Homes, Family Care Homes, and other agencies and caregivers who serve adults of all ages who have mental health needs and/or may be at high risk for psychiatric hospitalization. The mission of the team is to increase the ability of older and younger adults with mental illness to live successfully in their community, build community capacity to prevent and shorten psychiatric hospitalization, sustain community placement, increase provider capacity to divert from inpatient care, and promote higher quality of care for this population. While the team does not provide direct services to individuals residing at the different facilities, consultation services are available for specific clients, as requested. The team consists of two Registered Nurses and one Senior Practitioner.