What are Mental Health Services?

Overview
Onslow Carteret Behavioral Healthcare provides assistance to citizens who have an emotional and/or psychiatric problems by linking the them to a private provider that listed on the Qualified Provider Community and providing monitoring for quality services. Equal Opportunity access is provided regardless of race, sex, religion, nationality or handicap.  A sliding scale fee, based on income and number of dependents, is available.  Clients are principally self-referred, but other referral sources include the Department of Social Services, the courts, psychiatric hospitals, Probation and Parole, and other community agencies and private physicians.

Services
The Adult Mental Health Division is composed of the following service areas which are designed to provide a variety of treatment options to meet the needs of those adult citizens with mental health problems.

• Screening:  Initial interviewing and information gathering to determine the therapeutic needs and goals of potential clients, and to identify needs for referral to appropriate services.
  
• Aftercare:  This service provides clients who have recently returned from inpatient treatment in a psychiatric hospital with a rapid transition to outpatient services.  Nurses provide and document the initial contact and arrange for a physician's evaluation at the first visit.  This service is extended to those who return from private as well as state hospitals.
  
• Medication Service:  With the assistance of our clinical staff, physicians prescribe, monitor and administer a wide range of psychotropic medications for those clients whose condition warrants this treatment.  Staff concentrates on those clients with severe and persistent mental disorders.  This primarily targets those affected by schizophrenia.  A second group of people served by this section consists of clients with good long-term mood stability who no longer need psychotherapy, but continue to benefit from mood stabilizing medication.  A third group consists of those clients whose treatment consists of a combination of psychotherapy and medication.  Physicians prescribe and monitor the effects of psychotropic medications for all clients whose treatment can be rendered or enhanced through the use of these medications.  Masters Level Psychologists and Clinical Social Workers provide the psychotherapy portion of the service and scheduling for the physicians.
  
• Psychotherapy:  A combination of Masters Level Psychologists and Clinical Social Workers provide individual and group therapy with clients whose mental illness can be appropriately treated using these methods.   Principally serving clients with depression or severe anxiety, clients with severe and persistent mental disorders can, at times, benefit from this treatment.
  
  Community Support

• Comprehensive Treatment Services Program (CTSP): Serves children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbance and is implemented through a collaborative effort between Onslow Carteret Behavioral Healthcare Services, the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquent Prevention. The goal of this program is to divert children from going into DSS custody, Training Schools (Youth Academies) and State Hospitals inappropriately because they could not receive community-based mental health services.
  

• Psychosocial Rehabilitation:  This day program is built on a clubhouse model, stressing membership rather than "treatment".  The program is designed to provide a normalizing environment which encourages the development of basic living skills, work related skills, and social skills.  Members are encouraged to participate in the program's management, with staff providing guidance and education rather than traditional treatment.  Clients with severe and persistent mental illness are encouraged to attend the program once the more intense symptoms of their illness have been brought under control.
  
  

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