CAWS North Dakota contracts with Heartview Foundation to provide mental health and substance abuse services
Bismarck– CAWS North Dakota announced Monday they will be contracting with Heartview Foundation to provide mental health and substance abuse services, to victims receiving services through six crisis intervention centers located in oil producing counties of western North Dakota, using funding recently awarded under the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Bakken Region Enhanced Response to Victims Initiative.
According to The National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health, domestic violence and other lifetime trauma can have significant mental health consequences. Additionally, living with mental health conditions or addiction increases a person’s risk of experiencing abuse in the future. In 2013 alone, 52% of North Dakota domestic violence victims receiving services reported suffering from a mental illness. Of the 1,013 new victims in 2013, served through one of the twenty North Dakota crisis intervention centers, 49% indicated the abuser, the victim or both had a history of alcohol use and 20% indicated the abuser, the victim or both had a history of drug use associated with domestic violence.
Under the contract Heartview Foundation will provide an innovative, alternative and cost-effective approach to providing substance abuse services through telehealth. Telehealth is the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care. Heartview is the only private substance abuse agency using Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) compliant teleports with HIPPA compliant policies and procedures for adoption at remotes sites, such as the crisis intervention centers. Any client with access to internet and a PC, tablet or smart-phone can access the private network.
“Heartview views this collaboration as a pioneering opportunity to bring needed services to the Bakken Region through new technology,” said Kurt Snyder, Executive Director of Heartview Foundation. “We’re well aware of how often substance abuse is part of the equation in domestic violence and sexual abuse.”
This opportunity will also provide training to staff at crisis intervention centers in the following areas: substance abuse screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment; mental health first aid; medication monitoring and administration.
“We are very excited about our new partnership with the Heartview Foundation. The services they will be offering in the Bakken will address the longstanding unmet substance abuse and mental health needs while also building the capacity of crisis centers to address the long term effects of trauma on victims,” said Janelle Moos, CAWS North Dakota’s Executive Director.
Heartview Foundation is a drug and alcohol treatment program located in Bismarck, ND since 1964. They have provided addiction treatment services to over 26,000 individuals and families. Heartview Foundation is the longest-running non-profit, private, alcohol/drug treatment provider in the state of North Dakota. For more information, Kurt Snyder can be contacted at 701-426-8677.
CAWS North Dakota is a nonprofit membership organization representing the 20 domestic violence and sexual assault crisis centers throughout the state. It is the mission of CAWS North Dakota to provide leadership and support in the identification, intervention, and prevention of domestic and sexual violence. For more information, please visit www.cawsnorthdakota.org.