Proyecto Juntos

Proyecto Juntos/Project Together (PJ) is a community-led research project to improve access to and utilization of mental/behavioral (M/B) health services. PJ is led by the Southeast Arizona Health Education Center (SEAHEC), a rural health workforce agency, and targets a rural three-county region in Southeastern Arizona where there is extremely limited access to M/B health services. Through community-led assessment and analysis, the project identified and will address critical factors shown to burden the intervention communities including: 1) Availability of Health Resources 2) Shortage of a rural M/B health workforce 3) Need for Care Coordination, 4) Prohibitive Costs of Care/Insurance, and 5) Stigma toward M/B health and health services. To address these barriers long-term, Project Together leverages long-standing partnerships with community, clinical and academic institutions, and builds new crosscutting, multisectoral partnerships with state, regional, and local agencies. Key to its design is the training and deployment of community health workers. The project has three phases: 1) assessment/planning/developing intervention strategies; 2) implementation of interventions combined with rigorous planning, stakeholder engagement and evaluation methods; and 3) dissemination of findings and development of a sustainability plan with communities and policymakers. SEAHEC's cultivated trust in rural and frontier communities, established multisectoral partnerships, and history working with M/B providers and scientists, uniquely positions this project to make lasting positive changes in M/B health and healthcare in rural communities that are rarely reached by research and government efforts. This project will provide information on how to increase access to mental and behavioral health services in rural communities.