Community Care Publications
Community Care Publication Abstracts
2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020
Using a Learning Collaborative Model to Improve Youth Psychiatric Residential Treatment
As part of a transformation initiative, a behavioral health managed care organization partnered with 14 youth psychiatric residential treatment facilities (PRTFs) through a Learning Collaborative to support clinical training, family engagement, community integration, and medication monitoring. Self-reported progress toward sustainable implementation, monitored monthly, improved significantly over time (F = 15.05, p < .0001). Clinical and direct care PRTF staff (N = 1,580) received either in-person or virtual clinical training. Scores on a pre- and post-training knowledge test increased significantly for both in-person and virtual training (p < .001 for both), and training satisfaction was high. Percentage of youth with therapeutic family sessions per month did not change over the Learning Collaborative; this percentage began and remained high (Range: 90.71% to 93.37%). Strategies to engage youth and families in organizational governance increased significantly (e.g. including youth/family partners on staff and in program development). The number of partnerships between PRTFs and community-based behavioral health providers did not change over time. Instead, number of partnerships began and remained high (Range: 38.36 to 48.08). PRTFs also tracked medications monthly to develop internal systems to monitor prescribing practices. This study highlights the value of partnerships and the Learning Collaborative approach to support a continuous quality improvement process.
Family Based Mental Health Services (FBMHS) with an embedded clinical model, Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy, is an intervention designed for youth with a serious emotional disturbance (SED) who are at risk of out-of-home placement. The current evaluation examines the association between receipt of FBMHS and rates of out-of-home and community-based care during and after an episode of FBMHS. We identified 25,016 Medicaid-enrolled youth ages 3 to 17 years with receipt of a new FBMHS episode from 1/1/2015 to 6/30/2021. 14% of youth received out-of-home services. Rates of out-of-home service decreased during receipt of FBMHS (14.25–6.98%, p < .0001) and remained lower 6 months following discharge (to 6.95%, p < .0001). Short and longer doses of service were both associated with decreased rates of out-of-home services. FBMHS has been scaled across a large geographic area and is associated with lower rates of out-of-home placement for youth with SED.
Working Works: Considerations and Resources for Navigating Employment in the Recovery Journey
Behavioral health best practice incorporates a whole-health perspective that emphasizes wellness, is person-centered, and focuses on the whole person and their strengths, not their illness (Swarbrick, 2006). Occupational wellness, that “personal satisfaction and enrichment derived from one’s work” (SAMHSA, 2012), is key to identity for many. Not finding employment can be a barrier to achieving wellness and even a roadblock on the recovery journey. Community Care Behavioral Health Organization (Community Care), a nonprofit behavioral health managed care organization part of the UPMC Insurance Services Division, encourages exploring employment as part of recovery-oriented care and has developed supportive resources for practitioners and individuals returning to work.