Peer support to reduce readmission in Medicaid-enrolled adults with substance use disorder.

Introduction: Peer support service in substance use disorder systems (PS SUD) is an optional supplement to treatment services for Medicaid-enrolled individuals across Pennsylvania. The value of PS SUD was defined through association with improved service utilization patterns. We examined service utilization in a subset of individuals receiving PS SUD following an acute service (hospitalization or withdrawal management) compared to utilization in propensity-score-matched controls via an observational analysis.

Promoting collaborative psychiatric care decision-making in community mental health centers: Insights from a patient-centered comparative effectiveness trial.

Objective: Mental health service-users face important medication decisions; yet not all are active participants in the decision-making process. Little is known about which technology-supported interventions might effectively promote collaborative decision-making in psychiatric care. We compared the effectiveness of two technology-supported collaborative care decision-making approaches.

Value of psychiatric rehabilitation in a behavioral health medicaid managed care system.

Objective: The present study was designed to describe individuals receiving psychiatric rehabilitation (PR) service and investigate program outcomes and factors associated with progress in a multisite, descriptive evaluation across Pennsylvania.

Method: Through an outcomes-monitoring process integrated into routine service delivery, survey responses from 408 individuals participating in PR were summarized. Linear mixed models were used to examine change over time in self-reported progress ratings in rehabilitation domains and factors associated with progress.

First-Person Perspectives on Prescriber-Service User Relationships in Community Mental Health Centers.

Objective: Because of changes in health care, there is a greater focus on brief medication management visits as the primary method of providing psychiatric care in community mental health settings. Research on the first-person perspectives of service users and prescribers in these settings is limited. The objective of this study was to describe first-person perspectives on medication management visits and the service user-prescriber relationship.

A Successful Implementation Strategy to Support Adoption of Decision Making in Mental Health Services.

Individual involvement in treatment decisions with providers, often through the use of decision support aids, improves quality of care. This study investigates an implementation strategy to bring decision support to community mental health centers (CMHC). Fifty-two CMHCs implemented a decision support toolkit supported by a 12-month learning collaborative using the Breakthrough Series model.

In managed behavioral health care, a seat at the table is not enough.

Topic: The involvement of individuals in recovery and their families has helped drive change in the behavioral health field. Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) can promote meaningful involvement by empowering stakeholders at every level of the organization.

Purposes: Roles for self-identified service recipients, including membership on boards, advisory committees, and grievance committees; in research and evaluation; in employment at all levels of the MCO; and in individual interactions with providers--as well as the impact of this involvement on individuals and the organization--is explored.

Education and training column: the learning collaborative.

Topic: This column describes the key components of a learning collaborative, with examples from the experience of 1 organization.

Purpose: A learning collaborative is a method for management, learning, and improvement of products or processes, and is a useful approach to implementation of a new service design or approach.

Sources Used: This description draws from published material on learning collaboratives and the authors' experiences.

Integrating personal medicine into service delivery: empowering people in recovery.

Objective: Illness management and recovery strategies are considered evidence-based practices. The article describes how a web-based application, CommonGround, has been used to support implementation of such strategies in outpatient mental health services and assess its impact. The specific focus of this article is Personal Medicine, self-management strategies that are a salient component of the CommonGround intervention.

Changing stigma through a consumer-based stigma reduction program.

This study assessed the Anti-Stigma Project workshop, a contact/education intervention developed by On Our Own of Maryland, Inc. and the Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration. Two separate randomized controlled trials administered pre- and post-test questionnaire assessments.

Results of an innovative university-based recovery education program for adults with psychiatric disabilities.

This study examined the effectiveness of an educational approach to psychiatric rehabilitation called the Recovery Center. Using a quasi-experimental design we recruited 97 intervention and 81 comparison participants and examined the intervention's impact on health, mental health, subjective, and role functioning outcomes. Results suggested that this intervention was effective in improving subjective outcomes, especially empowerment and recovery attitudes, both of which received primary emphasis in the intervention.

An investigation of reasonable workplace accommodations for people with psychiatric disabilities: quantitative findings from a multi-site study.

Despite the requirement of many employers to provide accommodations in the workplace for individuals with disabilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the preponderance of accommodations that have been described in the literature concern physical rather than psychiatric disabilities. This study was an exploratory, descriptive, longitudinal, multi-site investigation of reasonable workplace accommodations for individuals with psychiatric disabilities involved in supported employment programs. We discuss the functional limitations and reasonable accommodations provided to 191 participants and the characteristics of 204 employers and 22 service provider organizations participating in the study.