- Q: Is this opportunity only open to agencies that are not currently contracted with DMH for FDDP?
A: Current Program 800 grantees may also apply for the NOFO as long as they are willing to serve one of the counties listed.
- Q: To what extent can we deliver services remotely?
A: The services for the assessment upon receipt of the referral to the Front Door Program, predominantly need to be conducted face-to-face. Getting in front of that consumer, making contact with the consumer and your partner hospitals in that desired county is the predominant engagement of those assessment efforts.
- Q: Can we use our CHMC located in Chicago to expand our services and desired counties if we have a staff person in the counties to conduct the assessment?
A: We anticipate that the services being offered, and the goal of the program is that the services being offered for diversion in the community are being offered in the location that is specified by that consumer. The housing should be local to the consumer's needs. The support services such as access to resources, case management type services, and access to mental health support would be conducted with the consumer in the location that they have identified where they would like to receive those services. In our experience many of the individuals are typically diverting and returning back to an entity that would be familiar to them, and those services should be conducted in the counties identified in the NOFO.
- Q: Will providers have to directly provide ACT or CST services?
A: All of the services do not necessarily need to be provided directly by the agency, but must be coordinated by the FDDP agency. The front door agency has the responsibility to ensure that the consumer they're diverting has access to the services and supports that are being offered to them, whether they are linked to those services or provided directly by the front door agency. Agencies will need to identify in their proposal how services like psychiatry, SUD, ACT/CST, and case management are accessible or provided by the front door agency. Applicants will need to outline how they will ensure that these services are going to be made available to the individual that they are accessing and then ultimately making offers for services for diversion. It will be the front door agency's responsibility to link or provide directly the services that are being outlined in that offer for diversion.
- Q: There is some language in the NOFO about the permissibility of subcontracting certain services. What services can and cannot be subcontracted under this grant?
A: In Service Program Details part C it states that "The grantee must provide or secure through an affirmative letter of agreement or contract with another provider, as is acceptable to DMH, full access to all rule 140 behavioral health services to address individual needs, including without limitation case management and team based services such as ACT, CST, peer recovery services, and SOAR unemployment services." In Service Program Details part L it states that you can subcontract for the consumer engagement and outreach assessment (screening), as well as housing transition, location, and coordination. All services provided to the consumer as part of the Front Door Diversion program may be subcontracted. The agency has the ultimate responsibility for overseeing and ensuring that the consumer gets the services. All of the reporting requirements are directed to the contracted agency, not to the subcontractors.
- Q: I'm inquiring about FDDP on behalf of a community mental health agency that serves the Southland of Chicago. Is the NOFO restricted to counties other than Cook County? Does that mean you're looking for providers located in Lake and Peoria counties?
A: The provider must be able to serve at least one of the counties listed in the NOFO: Adams, Coles, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Madison, Marion, McHenry, Saline, Sangamon, St. Clair, Whiteside, and Winnebago.
