The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #47756

Joseph J Parks, MD, Missouri Department of Mental Health, 1706 E Elm St, PO Box687, Jefferson City, MO 65102, 573-751-2794, mzparkj@mail.dmh.state.mo.us and David E. Pollio, PhD, School of Social Work, Washington University, One Brookings Dr., Box 1196, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899.

For the past year the Missouri Department of Mental Health (DMH) has engaged in a Practice Guidelines Initiative to develop practice guidelines identifying Best Practices for Self-Determination and Recover in persons with developmental disabilities, substance abuse, and mental illness. DMH consists of three divisions: Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Mental Retardation/Developmental Disability. The presentation will describe how this initiative was designed to achieve changes in services provided to consumers, internal organizational culture and the relationships of various constituent groups of the DMH. This Practice Guideline Initiative is unique in that it has involved not only academic and clinical experts, but also services providers, administrators, and most importantly, service consumers and their families. It is also unique in that it is not focused strictly on clinical areas such as medication algorithms, but has chosen to focus on broader conceptual areas such as self-determination in treatment. We will present the guideline development process, as well as results to date from one of the six writing teams. Implementation of the guidelines into DMH services will be presented, as will products to be disseminated to various stakeholder groups.

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