Care Management Intervention to Address Determinants of Health for Individuals With Multiple Behavioral Health Readmission.

Purpose Of Study: To examine the effectiveness of a care management intervention to decrease readmissions and to better understand clinical and social determinants associated with readmission.

Primary Practice Setting: Inpatient mental health (MH) and substance use disorder (SUD) facilities, nonhospital SUD withdrawal management and rehabilitation facilities.

Methodology And Sample: The authors identified 3,950 Medicaid-enrolled individuals who received the intervention from licensed clinical staff of a behavioral health managed care organization; 2,182 individuals were eligible but did not receive the intervention, for treatment as usual (TAU).

Disrupted Care Continuity: Testing Associations between Social Networks and Transition Success for Children with Autism.

Children with autism situated in lower income families often receive intensive educational interventions as their primary form of treatment, due to financial barriers for community interventions. However, the continuity of care can be disrupted by school transitions. The quality of social relationships during the transition to a new school among parents, school staff and community providers, called the team-around-the-child (TAC), can potentially buffer a child with autism from the adverse effects caused by care disruptions.

An examination of the factor structure of TeamSTEPPS measures in school mental health teams.

Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS™) is a tested strategy for improving communication and climate in hospitals. It is a promising but untested tool among school-based mental health teams. We examined the psychometric properties of the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) and Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire (T-TAQ) among 167 school mental health team members.

Provider Responses to Positive Developmental Screening: Disparities in Referral Practices?

Objectives: Guidelines recommend universal screening for developmental concerns in young children in pediatric primary care, with referral to early intervention (EI) as early as possible for children with a positive screen. However, participation in EI differs by child race, ethnicity, language, and sex. This study evaluated disparities in rates of referral to EI and estimated the factors associated with referral before and immediately after a positive developmental screen.

Prosocial attention in children with and without autism spectrum disorder: Dissociation between anticipatory gaze and internal arousal.

From an early age children help others yet the underlying mechanisms of children's prosocial attention remain understudied. Comparing the attentional and physiological mechanisms of prosocial attention of typically developing and atypically developing children contributes to our understanding of the ontogeny of prosocial development. We presented typically developing (TD) children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), who often have difficulty developing prosocial behaviour, with scenarios in which an adult needed a dropped object to finish a task but was subsequently not helped by a second adult.

Community Mental Health Services for Autistic Adults: Good News and Bad News.

Many autistic adults experience psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression. However, autistic adults often do not receive effective and affordable mental health (MH) treatment. Untreated psychiatric conditions in autistic adults are associated with a host of negative outcomes, including adaptive functioning impairments, difficulties with employment and independent living, and poor quality of life.

Research Review: Outcomes of 24- to 36-month-old children with autism spectrum disorder vary by ascertainment strategy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Despite widespread recommendations for early surveillance of risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), no research to date has shown that early surveillance leads to better clinical outcomes. Preliminary research has suggested that children with ASD ascertained via prospective follow-up have better outcomes than those ascertained via community referral. Because prospective studies include early surveillance, by comparing outcomes of children with ASD across ascertainment strategies, we may gain insight into the effects of early surveillance relative to its absence.

Correction to: Caregiver Voices: Cross-Cultural Input on Improving Access to Autism Services.

Please note that the middle name of coauthor Francisco Reinosa Segovia was misspelled (as "Rienosa") is this article as originally published.

Caregiver Voices: Cross-Cultural Input on Improving Access to Autism Services.

Decades of research have established that racial ethnic minority, low-income, and/or non-English speaking children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are diagnosed later than white children, and their families experience greater difficulty accessing services in the USA. Delayed access to timely diagnosis and early intervention may impact child outcomes and family quality of life. Despite their cognition of these disparities and their significant impact on the lives of those affected, explanations for the barriers experienced by underserved families are elusive, likely due to the complex interaction between structural and family factors.

Atypicalities of Gesture Form and Function in Autistic Adults.

While well-represented on clinical measures, co-speech gesture production has never been formally studied in autistic adults. Twenty-one verbally fluent autistic adults and 21 typically developing controls engaged in a controlled conversational task. Group differences were observed in both semantic/pragmatic and motoric features of spontaneously produced co-speech gestures.

Reduced Eating Pace (RePace) Behavioral Intervention for Children Prone to or with Obesity: Does the Turtle Win the Race?

Objective: Rapid eating is a risk factor for childhood obesity but has not been a focus of intervention with young children. The short-term effects of a novel family-based treatment, "Reduced Eating Pace" (RePace), were tested on child eating speed and secondary outcomes.

Methods: Twenty-eight rapid eating children were randomized to RePace (n  = 14) or Delayed Usual Care Control (DUC) (n  = 14).

The implementation of a team training intervention for school mental health: Lessons learned.

Children obtain more mental health services through schools than through any other system. In urban, low-resource schools, mental health care often is provided by teams of contracted community mental health workers. Implementation of intended services may struggle in the context of challenges related to team functioning.

Treatment Utilization by Adults with Autism and Co-Occurring Anxiety or Depression.

Background: While a growing body of research suggests that talk therapies can reduce anxiety and depression in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we know little about what community treatment for these disorders looks like for them. The present study investigated whether treatment utilization differs between adults with and without ASD who have anxiety or depression.

Method: Using Pennsylvania Medicaid claims data, adults aged 18-65 years diagnosed with ASD and depression or anxiety (n = 268) were matched 1:4 to adults with depression or anxiety disorder without ASD (n = 1,072).

Ideal Interactions: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We conducted a qualitative study using key informant interviews with 18 teachers and 39 parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) about how they would envision their ideal interactions with each other. Four main themes emerged from our content analysis. Parents and teachers were concerned about different aspects of communication with each other.

Place and community inclusion: Locational patterns of supportive housing for people with intellectual disability and people with psychiatric disorders.

Purpose: This study examines the locational patterns of publicly-funded supportive housing for people with intellectual disability (people with ID) and people with psychiatric disorders (people with PD).

Methods: Administrative data provided housing locations of 4599 people with ID and people with PD in one urban county and one suburban county in the United States. Census tract data captured neighborhood characteristics.

Scope Of Primary Care Physicians' Participation In The Health Insurance Marketplaces.

Millions of Americans have purchased health insurance through the Marketplaces, but their access to care is not well understood. Using an audit study, we compared the scope of primary care physicians' participation in Marketplace plans to that in other insurance types in 2016. Across ten diverse states, rates of participation in Marketplace plans were higher than those in Medicaid, but lower than those in employer-sponsored insurance.

Acuity-based Scheduling in Primary Care.

Objectives: Triage algorithms are ubiquitous in emergency care settings, but the extent of their use in primary care is unknown. This study asks whether primary care practices prioritize patients with more acute service needs.

Methods: We used an audit study in which simulated patients were randomized to 2 clinical scenarios-a new patient seeking a routine check-up or a new patient seeking treatment for newly diagnosed hypertension-and attempted to schedule appointments with thousands of randomly selected primary care physicians across 10 states.

Examining the Impact of Psychological Factors on Hospital Length of Stay for Burn Survivors: A Systematic Review.

Recovery of burn patients may be impeded by mental health problems. By gaining a better understanding of the impact that psychological factors may have on hospital length of stay, providers may be better informed to address the complex needs of burn survivors through effective and efficient practices. This systematic review summarizes existing data on the adverse psychological factors for the length of burn patients' hospitalization, and assesses the methodological quality of the extant literature on mental health conditions of burn survivors.

Brief Report: Service Use and Associated Expenditures Among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder Transitioning to Adulthood.

This study compared Medicaid service utilization and expenditures among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) as they aged into adulthood. Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) data was used to identify a national cohort. Winsorization was utilized to control for expenditure outliers.

A hybrid type I randomized effectiveness-implementation trial of patient navigation to improve access to services for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Significant racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in access to evidence-based treatment services for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Patient Navigation (PN) is a theory-based care management strategy designed to reduce disparities in access to care. The purpose of this study is to test the effectiveness of PN a strategy to reduce disparities in access to evidence-based services for vulnerable children with ASD, as well as to explore factors that impact implementation.

State Adoption of Incentives to Promote Evidence-Based Practices in Behavioral Health Systems.

Objective: Despite the critical role behavioral health care payers can play in creating an incentive to use evidence-based practices (EBPs), little research has examined which incentives are used in public mental health systems, the largest providers of mental health care in the United States.

Methods: The authors surveyed state mental health directors from 44 states about whether they used any of seven strategies to increase the use of EBPs. Participants also ranked attributes of each incentive on the basis of key characteristics of diffusion of innovation theory (perceived advantage, simplicity, compatibility, observability, and gradually implementable) and perceived effectiveness.

Defining behavioral components of social functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder as targets for treatment.

Unlabelled: There is increasing recognition that adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) would benefit from treatment to improve social functioning, a key factor in adults' overall quality of life. However, the various behavioral components of social functioning (i.e.

The Relationship Between Anger and Anxiety Symptoms in Youth with Anxiety Disorders.

This study examined the relationship between anger and anxiety in youth in an outpatient anxiety treatment clinic. Participants included 40 primarily female and Caucasian youth, all diagnosed with a primary anxiety disorder. Youth provided ratings of anger, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.