Moody Grant Recipient: Integral Care

Integral Care’s mission is to improve the lives of people affected by behavioral health and developmental and/or intellectual challenges.

Tell us about the relationship between Integral Care and the Moody Foundation.

Like the Moody Foundation, Integral Care is committed to making a long-term positive impact on our community with a vision of healthy living for everyone. The Moody Foundation has partnered with Integral Care on several innovative projects that will improve the health and well-being of adults and children who live with mental illness, substance use disorder, and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Since 2018, the Moody Foundation has provided a capital grant for Terrace at Oak Springs, a new permanent supportive housing community that will serve 50 adults living with mental illness, substance use disorder, and/or other chronic illnesses; program support for suicide prevention efforts in Del Valle Independent School District; and funding to develop a client assistance fund for new residents of Terrace at Oak Springs, which officially opened on Sept. 23.

What are you using the funds for? Why is that significant?

Funds from the Moody Foundation have helped create a client assistance fund for future residents of Terrace at Oak Springs. Many of Terrace’s future residents have been living on the streets for years with just the contents in their backpack, relying solely on their survival skills. To address this need, Integral Care will create a client assistance fund to cover residents’ other expenses, such as cleaning supplies, linens, bathroom supplies, kitchen utensils, money for deposits, application fees, prescription co-pays and medical equipment for chronic medical issues. By providing Terrace residents with these household items and offering flexible funds for other day-to-day expenses, we can enhance the stabilizing effects of housing. Residents who feel more comfortable in their living environment and have their basic needs met are more inclined to access resources like substance use treatment and mental health care, leading to improved health outcomes and increased housing stability.

Can you share more about the COCObundle campaign?

This spring, Integral Care partnered with COCObundle, an Austin-based social enterprise, to stock every unit at Terrace at Oak Springs with household essentials. The COCObundle concept is simple: Nonprofits create an online registry of items, allowing individual donors to conveniently contribute, or “coco,” the ones that fit their budget and meet the organization’s needs. COCObundle is supplying linens, kitchenware, utensils, bathroom supplies, and more for the future residents of Terrace at Oak Springs. This campaign supplemented funds that we received from community partners, including the Moody Foundation, to make sure that all our residents had the comforts of home in their new apartments.

How many families do you serve each year?

Last fiscal year, Integral Care served 27,742 adults and children in our community. Integral Care offers a comprehensive array of services for individuals living with mental illness, substance use disorder, and/or IDD. These include our 24/7 crisis helpline, mobile crisis response, residential treatment, integrated primary and behavioral healthcare, holistic prevention and wellness programs, housing services with wraparound rehabilitation supports and re-entry services. Integral Care’s staff of 900 employees delivers person-centered, trauma-informed and culturally competent client care that is effective and evidence-based.

What need are you hoping Terrace at Oak Springs can help fulfill in the community?

A home is more than four walls. It’s the basic foundation for health and well-being. When someone lives on the street, it is extremely difficult to recover from a mental health issue, substance use disorder or manage a chronic health condition. Integral Care uses housing as a health intervention. With a safe place to live and appropriate support services, recovery from homelessness, mental health issues and substance use disorder begins. People thrive and our community is stronger.

Terrace at Oak Springs is a unique apartment community providing private apartments with onsite support services to adults experiencing homelessness in Travis County. When someone has access to tools like housing to regain health and independence, counseling and a community to support emotional health, primary care to improve physical health, and drug and alcohol treatment to help with recovery, they can reach their full potential and contribute to the community.

Terrace at Oak Springs includes 50 fully furnished, single occupancy efficiency apartments and an onsite integrated health care clinic, 3000 Oak Springs Clinic, which will be open to community members in need of services. Features include onsite staffing 24 hours a day, onsite laundry facility, outdoor green space, community room with library, computers, and internal and external security cameras. Terrace at Oak Springs is modeled after other successful programs across the country and the first of its kind in Central Texas.

How do you hope Integral Care and its programs will grow in the next several years?

Integral Care continues our commitment to providing trauma-informed, culturally-competent care that is responsive to the needs of the individual, helping them build health and well-being. We will ensure that our community can have confidence that a system of support is in place across our community that fosters health and independence. We plan to build upon our strong operational and clinical foundation to deploy innovative care models, create strong integrated physical and behavioral health care practices, work in partnership to address social determinants of health, and secure sustainable resources to support our work.

Over the next three years, Integral Care will demonstrate this commitment by consistently developing operations and offering programs that ensure the availability of high-quality services for Travis County residents with serious mental illness, substance use disorder and IDD.

Above all, Integral Care recognizes that our effectiveness and the health of our community depends upon strong relationships nurtured and sustained with our staff, clients, stakeholders, government, clinical and social service providers, and philanthropic and for-profit organizations. We will create a stronger community by working together with a shared mission to improve the health and well-being of the people in Travis County. Integral Care looks forward to this future.