Coastal Horizons Center recently received a four-year, $2 million grant that it will use to pilot the integration of HIV medical care into behavioral health programs, the local nonprofit announced.
 
The grant, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and several other substance abuse and mental health agencies, is designed to fund a Minority AIDS Initiative–Continuum of Care grant, according to a news release.
 
“We are very pleased that SAMHSA has awarded Coastal Horizons Center funding to provide services to some of the most vulnerable in our population,” president and CEO Margaret Weller-Stargell said in the release. “This crucial funding will allow us to provide coordinated and integrated care that will include behavioral health treatment, prevention, and HIV medical services for racial and ethnic minority populations at high risk for -- or living with -- HIV, through the co-location of behavioral health treatment and medical care.”
 
SAMHSA developed the integrated AIDS medical care/behavioral health pilot program to address behavioral health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities by improving their access to and use of services, the release stated.
 
Coastal Horizons Center is a local private nonprofit that “promotes choices for healthier lives and safer communities” by providing a continuum of professional services for crisis prevention and intervention, help for sexual assault victims, treatment of substance abuse and mental health disorders and criminal justice alternatives, according to the release. The organization serves the 53 counties of eastern North Carolina.