Checking In with Alaska Behavioral Health: Meeting increasing demand for mental health services.

• Author: Newman, Amy
• Position: HEALTHCARE SPECIAL SECTION

With facilities in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska Behavioral Health (ABH) has provided mental health and wraparound behavioral health services to Alaskan children, youth in transition, adults, and families, including those with cooccurring substance misuse, for more than forty-five years. Throughout that time the agency has constantly evolved to meet its patients' needs, increasing treatment options, creating specialized programs, and extending its reach across the state.

That evolution includes a 2020 name change from Anchorage Community Mental Health Services, which it operated under since it first opened its doors on June 11,1974. The change to Alaska Behavioral Health was intended to reflect both the array of services the clinic provides and its reach across the state.

"A little over a year ago, we made the change to Alaska Behavioral Health, with the goal of serving people statewide and having facilities in Anchorage and Fairbanks," explains CEO Jim Myers. "Our basic philosophy is trying to improve capacity to meet demand, which is a never-ending struggle in behavioral health. We've grown 30 percent per year over the past three years, and we're continuing to grow."

ABH operates several different programs in Anchorage and Fairbanks designed to meet that increased demand for mental health services. In 2013, ABH opened Fairbanks Community Mental Health Services and in 2016 created Alaska Seeds of Change, an indoor hydroponic farm in Anchorage that serves as vocational training program for youth ages sixteen to twenty-three. ABH also assumed operation of the POWER Center in 2016, a drop-in center and clinic for teens and young adults. Each of these programs now operate under the Alaska Behavioral Health umbrella.

That expansion continued in 2021 with the introduction of several new programs and treatment options in Anchorage and Fairbanks, each designed to improve ABH's reach and its ability to meet its patients' needs.

Meeting Patients Where They're At

When state and local shelterin-place orders went into effect in March 2020 in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, medical providers scrambled to expand or, in some instances, implement telehealth options to facilitate their delivery of non-essential healthcare services.

ABH was better positioned than most to make the transition. That's because telemedicine delivery was a key part of its strategic plan long before COVID arrived, Myers says.

"It was a recognition that we do have a...