Behavioral Health System Reviews

In 2019, the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) received a planning grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to Increase Substance Use Disorder Provider Capacity. EOHHS then began our Provider Capacity Building Project, and as a part of the effort, contracted with consultants Faulkner Consulting Group and Health Management Associates to carry out a review of the behavioral health system in the state. The resulting Rhode Island Behavioral Health System Review included both quantitative and qualitative components, to determine gaps in services and access in the state - as well as policy proposals that can address the gaps. 

Review, Findings, and Interventions

Throughout the review process, EOHHS and our consultants sought public comment from a variety of stakeholders and included feedback in the final report. 

The findings of the review led EOHHS to identify two interventions to address the existing gaps in Rhode Island's Substance Use Disorder services and access, for which we are creating implementation plans: 

  • First, a plan for a statewide RI Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) program. This Rhode Island-specific program model would be designed to provide comprehensive mental health and substance use disorder services to vulnerable individuals throughout the life cycle. 
  • Second, a plan to develop a Single Statewide Mobile Mental Health Crisis System as a central part of our CCBHC model.

Click here to view the full report on the final findings of the Behavioral Health System Review. We will continue to seek stakeholder feedback throughout the implementation planning process.  

For updates on RI’s CCBHC program, please click here. 

Rhode Island's Adult Behavioral Health System of Care: A 2024 Snapshot

This 2024 Snapshot document demonstrates the interagency approach in the State of Rhode Island to addressing the RI 2030 Plan priority of “Enhancing Public Health and Wellness” for all Rhode Islanders. Key actions identified throughout this document include the need to: 

  • Invest in supportive services availability for placement and retention in geographically appropriate, affordable, and low-barrier housing as units and subsidies are made available for priority populations. 
  • Enhance employment supports and targeted workforce initiatives for those in recovery and who need individual placement to ensure economic mobility. 
  • Produce public awareness campaigns to change stigma and attitudes towards homelessness, poverty, mental health and substance use disorder treatment and medications, and toward individuals and families with lived experience. 
  • Address the impacts of structural racism and ableism to achieve health equity for individuals with behavioral health conditions.  
  • Ensure efficient transitions between systems of care, for transition-aged youth entering the adult system and older adults who may transition to long-term services and supports. 
  • Review existing sustainable funding streams, as well as create new ones, to support services that will ensure robust prevention activities for the progression of serious mental illness and substance use disorders — including those with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and those that may result in suicide or overdose. 
  • Continue emphasis on universal screening across medical, mental health, substance use, social, and long-term care settings for physical and behavioral health conditions and risk factors. 
  • Maintain advances in harm reduction and rescue that saturate communities with naloxone, promote safer drug use behaviors, and reach community members before and after an overdose. 
  • Expand low-barrier access to all medications and supports that have proven to be successful in treating substance use disorders. 
  • Implement the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) federal demonstration program and continue to sustain the 988-crisis service continuum (including crisis lifeline, mobile response, and walk-in stabilization centers) with quality control measures. 
  • Improve residential treatment and temporary respite services through the identification of properties to be used for mental healthcare and substance use residential treatment and other community-based programs, as well as workforce recruitment efforts. 
  • Provide robust community supports for individuals in recovery — including housing, social and peer capital, basic needs, economic supports, and workforce opportunities. 
  • Develop the necessary resources to ensure discharges include home and community-based supports, placements into lower levels of care, and/or into long-term services or institutions that appropriately address the behavioral health needs of all individuals. 
  • Implement revised Medicaid rate changes and keep pace with inflation to address behavioral healthcare workforce shortages and afford wages that allow providers to implement evidence-based practices and sustain services. 
  • Coordinate with the community, State agencies, and across sectors to improve partnerships and planning with the goal of ensuring inclusion, equity in resource distribution, quality service delivery, and improved governance for behavioral health