Maximizing Your Remaining CCBHC Grant Funds: Planning for Organizational Health, Workforce, and Sustainability

If you are a current CCBHC grantee you are approaching the final phase of your grant award. Now is an ideal time to strategically assess how to make the most of your remaining funds. This is not only an opportunity to strengthen organizational health and workforce capacity, but also to ensure compliance with CCBHC requirements—particularly the updated community needs assessment due in your final grant year.

Key Considerations for Your Remaining CCBHC Funds

• Community Needs Assessment:
  The CCBHC model requires an updated community needs assessment in the final year of your grant. A robust assessment typically takes 3–6 months to plan and execute, so it’s critical to start this process now. Findings from your needs assessment should directly inform service delivery, staffing plans, care coordination, and quality improvement efforts. Consider allocating funds for evaluation consultants, stakeholder engagement activities, and data collection tools to support this essential work.
• Workforce and Organizational Health:
  Use remaining funds to invest in workforce development—such as staff training, recruitment, and retention strategies. Addressing workforce challenges now can help position your organization for long-term sustainability and improved service delivery.
• Sustainability and Growth:
  As part of your CCBHC requirements, you should have a sustainability plan in place to support service delivery once federal funding ends. Compare your unspent funds to your outstanding needs for Planning, Development, and Implementation (PDI) activities. Consider whether there are components of your CCBHC model—such as billing practices, data collection, or care coordination—that require additional investment or technical assistance to ensure sustainability.

Allowable Activities:

• Measurement-based care implementation
• Addressing behavioral health disparities and social determinants of health
• Developing community partnerships and referral pathways
• Enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives
• Staff training and workforce development

Questions to Guide Your Planning:

• Do you have a sound sustainability plan for when grant funding ends?
• Are there specific CCBHC components you’ve found challenging to implement or strategize?
• How will your updated community needs assessment inform your future services and staffing?
• Are you leveraging data to demonstrate your CCBHC’s impact and value to stakeholders?

We are here to support you in addressing these questions and maximizing the impact of your remaining grant funds. If you need technical assistance with your needs assessment, sustainability planning, or workforce strategies, please reach out—we can help you navigate these next steps for continued growth and success.