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Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs)

The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) is a growing care model that offers creative solutions with documented results to meet the challenges facing behavioral health care organizations across the nation. Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics are making significant headway toward access to equitable, high-quality behavioral health care that’s sustainable.

View 8 key ways CCBHCs are revolutionizing the delivery of behavioral health care.

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Introducing CCBHC-Specific Standards

CCBHCs provide coordinated, comprehensive access to behavioral health services in accordance with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) criteria. To better support and guide organizations, The Joint Commission now has new standards specific to CCBHCs available for behavioral health and human services organizations. These standards will allow organizations to become Joint Commission accredited under specific CCBHC requirements and organizations who meet The Joint Commission’s CCBHC requirements will be better prepared to meet the national expectations for a CCBHC program.

Benefits for CCBHC organizations:

  • The ability to evaluate CCBHC organization’s compliance with standards directly aligned to SAMHSA requirements provides a better framework for meeting those requirements.
  • The Joint Commission accreditation process helps organizations standardize care delivery to reduce variances, helping to improve the consistency of high-quality care.
  • Joint Commission accreditation supports safe, high-quality care, treatment, and services throughout the organization via a holistic review of the entire organization, including all CCBHC programs and services.
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Who is Eligible?

The new requirements are for behavioral health and human services organizations who select that they are providing CCBHC services on their application. The requirements align with SAMHSA’s criteria for CCBHCs.

This includes nine types of services they must either provide themselves or partner with another organization for, including primary physical health care and mental health, substance abuse, and crisis services. CCBHCs are required to serve anyone who requests care for mental health or substance use, regardless of their ability to pay, place of residence, or age.

Must be delivered directly by the CCBHC

  • Screening, assessment, and diagnosis capabilities
  • Patient-centered treatment planning
  • Outpatient mental health and substance use disorder services
  • Crisis services (24 hour/mobile), crisis stabilization services

Can be delivered by the CCBHC or by a Designated Collaborating Organization

  • Peer support
  • Psychiatric rehabilitation
  • Target case management
  • Primary physical health screening/monitoring
  • Armed forces/veteran's services
SAMHSA is currently in the process of updating its criteria for CCBHCs, and the Joint Commission will update its CCBHC requirements to maintain alignment when the final updates are available. These revisions will be planned for later standards release.
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How Will Accreditation of CCBHCs Work?

The additional CCBHC standards will only be available for behavioral health and human services organizations who select that they are providing CCBHC services. These standards will then be added into their accreditation requirements and will be reviewed as a part of their accreditation survey. Upon achieving accreditation, the organization will have their CCBHC services listed in their accreditation quality report on www.qualitycheck.org and will be searchable on that website as a CCBHC.

Want to Learn More?

Get more details on requirements and eligibility plus, receive free access to the CCBHC-specific standards, available only with Joint Commission accreditation.

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