The Rural Behavioral Health Institute
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to reduce suicide among youth by building a school-based mental health system in rural America that includes universal mental health screening and robust mental health services.
About This Cause
VISION: We believe all youth deserve access to affordable, effective mental health care so they can live full, functional, and healthy lives. VALUES: Our values are grounded in access, innovation, mental wellness, and support. ABOUT RBHI: The Rural Behavioral Health Institute (RBHI; EIN 85-1210248), a Montana-based 501(c)(3) public charity, was founded in June of 2020. RBHI aims to reduce suicide among Montana youth, one of the greatest public health challenges in the US, through the implementation of evidence-based digital mental health screening and care programs. In March 2021, RBHI successfully piloted its Screening Linked to Care (SLTC) suicide prevention intervention in a Montana high school. In the 2021 - 2022 school year, RBHI expanded the SLTC intervention to multiple rural schools using telemental health care as SLTC screening same-day follow-up care. This model has proven to be both feasible and acceptable to school administrators, staff, students, and parents. The expansion of RBHI’s suicide prevention programming in Montana is underway and will continue for the next 3 years. RBHI plans to expand to all middle and high school students (~80,000) in the state by 2025. RBHI also plans to implement SLTC in other states after demonstrating scalability in Montana. RBHI’s staff is comprised of rural mental health experts, clinicians, and technology specialists. The RBHI Board of Directors has expertise in digital mental health care, suicide risk assessment and treatment, education, rural public health, and implementation science. RBHI also partners with schools across Montana, mental health providers, community members, national leaders in mental health care, and companies with innovative mental health technologies to support the mental wellness of youth. Together we will help improve and save children’s lives across rural America. HISTORY: RBHI was founded to fulfill the vision of a rural America in which all who need mental health care receive it. The RBHI Founders, Staff, and Board Members have spent their careers focused on major public health problems, with an emphasis on bolstering care for underserved populations, such as those living in rural regions lacking sufficient health care and those living with mental illness. In 2014, Montana State University established a new research center of excellence to address mental health inequities in Montana. From 2015 to 2020, the Center directed the research of leading suicide prevention interventions for youth and adults. Guided by a team of experts, a major effort succeeded at creating the most effective fully automated, internet-based depression treatment to date, dramatically advancing the potential to treat a key suicide risk factor. Its leadership also built productive partnerships with Extension Agents and Tribal Nations to further the reach of promising and evidence-based interventions. While an Associate Professor working on suicide prevention research (YAM, Thrive, and the Good Behavior Game) at the Center (2016-2018), Janet Lindow, PhD, realized the critical gap between research breakthroughs in mental health programming and the uptake of these advances in communities, especially in rural regions. In 2020, she co-founded RBHI with Julie Anderson and Bill Bryan to facilitate the dissemination and sustainability of leading, evidence-based, digital mental health screening tools and interventions (called “digital mental health care”) in rural communities to prevent suicide among youth. APPROACH: RBHI implements an evidence-based digital suicide risk screening tool that connects students with elevated risk of suicide to same-day mental health care in middle and high schools across the state. Universal suicide risk screening linked to follow-up mental health care (SLTC) increases the proportion of at-risk youth identified and connected with appropriate mental health care. RBHI’s digital screening platform includes validated assessments for suicide risk, depression and anxiety symptoms, functioning, and substance/alcohol use. RBHI aims to reduce youth suicide by: • Providing digital screening for suicide risk and risk factors (depression and anxiety symptoms) • Partnering with school-contracted mental health providers • Providing same-day telecare using licensed therapists • Offering brief case management services • Providing bridge psychiatric services (diagnostic evaluation and treatment planning) • Referring students to its ever-growing list of mental healthcare partners • Connecting students to licensed therapists who have volunteered to be in RBHI’s referral network RBHI’s strategy is to partner with schools, clinics, nonprofits, and communities in Montana to evaluate different implementation methods of digital mental health care and tailor them to meet the needs of individual rural communities. Then, RBHI disseminates successful methods. GOALS: In the next 3 years, RBHI aims to 1. Expand the reach of its Screening Linked to Care (SLTC) intervention among Montana middle and high schools to reduce the youth suicide rate and increase the number of students connected to mental health care. 2. Build a network of mental health care clinicians to support SLTC implementation and students identified as potentially needing longer-term mental health care. 3. Increase the proportion of students connected to care through the provision of bridge case management and psychiatric care services in regions with no or limited access to mental health care.