DMH/DD/SUS Strategic Plan for 2024-2029
Our commitment
We commit to driving innovation and positive change for North Carolinians. Our strategic plan provides the direction and transparency to be effective.
The strategic plan for the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services (DMH/DD/SUS):
- Describes our mission, vision, guiding principles, and key priorities
- Commits to improving the public system as leaders and advocates for all North Carolinians
- Identifies how we will track outcomes and measure impact
Our community partners, including advocates, providers, and caregivers, provided crucial input to the plan.
Download the plan
The complete strategic plan is available in PDF.
Track our progress
DMH/DD/SUS Strategic Plan Measures
We measure progress toward the seven goals in our strategic plan. Find a list of our 31 measures, and data on our progress to date.
Our mission
We build systems, services and supports that improve the well-being of all North Carolinians, with a focus on:
- Mental health
- Intellectual/developmental disabilities
- Substance use
- Traumatic brain injury
Our vision
We envision communities where all are supported to live healthier and happier lives.
Our priorities
We are focused on seven priority areas to meet the needs of any North Carolinian who seeks mental wellness or lives with a mental health issue, substance use disorder (SUD), intellectual/developmental disability (I/DD) or traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Increase access to care across the state
We will make it easier for people to access and stay in services to promote wellness, prevent suicide, address problem gambling, and live self-directed lives. We will:
- Increase treatment initial and retention
- Promote access to integrated care
- Increase caregiver supports
Launch a state-wide public-facing care directory with a directory of walk-in clinics, crisis service providers, behavioral health outpatient providers, and substance use treatment providers.
Build a network of providers that have open access hours and next-day services serving as a community-based entry point into care.
Create a safety net of behavioral health providers who provide evaluation, outpatient mental health and substance use, care management, and crisis services.
Increase resources to bolster counseling services and student-led and –run mental health clubs on college campuses.
Improve access to quality I/DD and TBI services
We will increase access to services so that more individuals with I/DD and TBI are able to live the lives of their choosing in their community. We will:
- Increase I/DD services
- Increase TBI services
- Increase community living supports
Support individuals on the Innovations Waiver waitlist and, where possible, enroll eligible individuals in 1915(i) services or other home and community based service.
Conduct outreach to support individuals on the Innovations Waiver waitlist, understanding individual needs and directing them to available services.
Expand the Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) program to help individuals with I/DD find and maintain jobs in the community at competitive wages.
Prevent substance misuse and overdose
We will use primary prevention, harm reduction techniques, and increase timely access to services to prevent substance misuse and overdose. We will:
- Increase primary prevention engagement
- Increase access to evidence-based substance use disorder treatment
Launch a state-wide prevention program aimed at implementing evidence-based substance misuse prevention models at the community level, especially programs focused on socialization for teens.
Update the Naloxone plan and take a leadership role to increase Naloxone availability by paying for the medicine, by supporting training, and by including it in the service definitions for crisis response teams.
Launch additional mobile OTP units to expand the reach of opioid treatment to marginalized individuals, the homeless, rural communities, and other underserved communities. OTPs are programs that treat OUD and provide assessments, counseling, MOUD, and other treatment services.
Expand services to specifically target adolescents and build programs tailored to the unique needs of this population. This may include approaches to care that are intentionally integrated with existing mental health services.
Build the workforce
We will encourage all individuals delivering care and supporting care delivery by offering quality, evidence-based services and support them in having a clear understanding of their role and a path for professional growth. We will:
- Strengthen peer workforce
- Strengthen direct support professional workforce
- Increase licensed providers
- Increase supports for unlicensed providers
Support the development of a single, low-cost certification curriculum, with an exam, for CPSSs, with add-on courses for special populations (such as for I/DD, aging, and justice populations) and care settings. Prioritize job placement for already trained CPSSs and create professional advancement opportunities for CPSSs, including a definition for peer supervisors that requires lived experience.
Implement DSP Workforce Plan and continue to support the development of a professional pathway for DSPs, including certification to ensure a consistent, high-quality workforce. Priority actions include partnering with the community college system to develop a DSP focused curriculum; providing recruitment and retention grants to provider agencies, launching a DSP directory to facilitate easy matching of DSPs to beneficiaries; and improving DSP compensation.
Advocate to update the North Carolina’s QP certification rules and partner with the community college system to develop a focused recruitment program and core competency curriculum. Develop standardized mental health and SUD trainings tailored to the Division’s workforce needs, apprenticeships, and work placements to better prepare the QPs for their on-the-job demands.
Partner with providers to remove barriers in participating in the public network and explore programs like scholarships, tuition assistance, technical assistance for contracting/compliance and other supports (e.g., counselling, supervisory, and programs to address burn-out).
Strengthen the crisis system
We will implement our Crisis to Care vision to meet the needs of people in distress across the state, ensuring that every North Carolinian has someone to contact, someone to respond, and a safe place for help. We will:
- Connect individuals to crisis care
- Increase timely mobile crisis care
- Increase community crisis facility use
Enhance funding for programs to fully staff services and address capacity challenges, including:
- Mobile Crisis Management: Fund new mobile crisis teams in high-needs areas. Work with the Division of Health Benefits to release a revised Mobile Crisis Clinical Coverage Policy that updates the types of licensed practitioners that must be included on mobile crisis teams.
- Mobile Outreach, Response, Engagement and Stabilization (MORES): Fund new MORES teams across the state, with a specific focus on high-needs (e.g., rural) areas.
Increase funding for co-responder models and enhance their visibility to ensure that community members can easily and utilize them.
Many individuals experiencing a BH crisis go to emergency departments, which is not always the appropriate level of care. To secure transport to an appropriate level of care, individuals are placed under involuntary commitment even if they are willing to receive treatment voluntarily. The non-law enforcement transportation pilot will offer an alternative to law enforcement, making it both less traumatizing and quicker for individuals to receive the right level of care.
Expand services for individuals in the justice system
The Division will create alternatives to incarceration, increase access to behavioral health treatment, and develop supports to deflect and divert more individuals from the justice system, as well as maintain stability upon re-entry. We will:
- Increase engagement in deflection and diversion programs
- Increase successful community re-engagement
- Increase use of evidence-based programs for justice involved youth
- Increase access to capacity restoration
Expand diversion program to all counties and enhance partnerships between law enforcement, counties and behavioral health providers.
Expand the capacity of transitional housing and employment vendors to serve individuals with SMI and SUD by funding the cost of additional beds, staffing, and treatment services.
Increase quality and consistency of behavioral health programs for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Through the existing network of JJBH Teams, invest in enhanced screening, assessment, care coordination, and treatment services for justice-involved youth statewide.
Amplify recovery and community-based services
We will strengthen the continuum of care for children and adults living with serious and complex mental health and substance use issues, including co-occurring I/DD and TBI. We will:
- Increase early detection and recovery services
- Grow peer recovery supports
- Improve quality of residential interventions for children with complex needs
Increase awareness of FEP programs and Connect people experiencing FEP, or prodromal symptoms, to coordinated specialty care for FEP.
Revitalize, modernize, and better fund clubhouses, which provide community-based, psychosocial rehabilitation services for people living with mental illness. In addition to opportunities for community-building and socializations, clubhouses provide employment, education, skill development, housing, and wellness services.
Our principles
Our partners helped us to identify five principles to guide our work. We drafted each section of the strategic plan with them in mind.
Lived experience
We value lived experience by listening to and advocating for individuals and families, championing the expertise of peers, promoting natural and community supports, and creating opportunities for meaningful partnership.
We know our partners have diverse perspectives, backgrounds, history, and identities that can help inform everything we do at the Division. We will center and learn from the experiences of our partners to improve the work that we do.
Equity
We create policy that helps everyone get what they need to live healthy lives in their communities, with particular focus on improving access to services for historically marginalized populations.
Equity means ensuring, through fair and just treatment, that all North Carolinians can achieve optimal health outcomes. In alignment with the 2021-2023 DHHS Strategic Plan, we will work with partners to overcome equity barriers for historically marginalized populations. We will monitor key metrics indicating the success and reach of our services across all population groups, and we will ensure that we and our partners are accountable for overcoming known, persistent health inequities.
Inclusivity
We commit to ensuring that everyone who uses our systems feels welcomed, and our policies support the health and well-being of all North Carolinians, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin, socioeconomic status, religion, ability, culture and experience.
We commit to ensuring that no individual feels unsupported by our services and supports, by taking steps to improve service accessibility for consumers and reduce burdens for providers.
Quality
We promote the provision of high-quality, evidence-based services and supports that leverage the expertise and best-practices of our clinical partners.
A quality-informed approach means leveraging data to perform oversight and promoting services and supports that lead to better outcomes. It includes regulating Plans and providers to ensure people receive services quickly with all rules and requirements followed. The Division will also share the data we collect so our partners can hold us accountable every step of the way.
Trauma-informed
We recognize the reality of trauma and promote a culture of kindness, understanding, and respect for every person.
Trauma has a real, measurable effect on the way we interact with the world around us. We commit to making sure our systems, services, and supports are reactive to life experience, and we aim to resist re-traumatization.
Our commitment to serving any North Carolinian
We are committed to the needs of any North Carolinian who seeks mental wellness or lives with a mental health issue, SUD, TBI or I/DD.
Some people have specialized needs that require specialized interventions. We will focus on these groups by advancing new, tailored interventions or by modifying existing interventions to better meet their needs.
Although the goals listed in the remainder of the strategic plan generally speak to one disorder or need (e.g., individuals with an opioid use disorder (OUD)), we are aware that people often navigate multiple disorders or needs, such as I/DD and mental health needs. We recognize the necessity of helping people to bridge the gap between different services or tie several services together. Sometimes a single intervention may be adequate to support those with co-occurring disorders or needs, but often the need is for good care management to ensure that multiple treatment needs are met.
We commit to providing the tools necessary for North Carolinians to receive services inclusive of physical ability and language of preference.
North Carolina is proud to have a large population of veterans and active service members. We commit to covering and promoting services that meet the specific needs of those who have served or are currently serving.
As people across the U.S. continue to live longer, we commit to ensuring that older adults in our state have the supports they need to age in place and that providers are trained in how to care for their unique needs.
We pledge to promote equitable access to quality systems, services, and supports. This means ensuring all North Carolinians, including those that have been historically excluded from full and straightforward participation in public systems, have their unique needs considered when we design and enhance our programming.