205767 Integration of Co-occurring Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders Services in Delaware

Tuesday, November 10, 2009: 1:15 PM

Cynthia Zubritsky, PhD , Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Aileen Rothbard, ScD , Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Dettwyler Steven, PhD , Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, Community Mental Health Services, New Castle, DE
The mental health (MH) and substance abuse (SA) treatment systems have struggled for many years to identify and treat individuals with co-occurring disorders (COD). In 2007, an estimated 5.4 million adults met the criteria for both severe mental illness and substance dependence or abuse.

Despite these high COD prevalence rates, the administration and funding of MH and SA services has traditionally had distinct systems and services for individuals with COD. These fragmented services often result in substandard care and ineffective treatment outcomes. Creating an infrastructure that combines these separate systems of care is necessary in order to meet the treatment needs of COD consumers. This presentation will describe the strategies that the state of Delaware has taken to change and improve the state's administrative infrastructure and enhance opportunities for providers and clinicians to obtain training in the delivery of COD services, through a practice-change initiative. Strategies to implement this intervention and methods to evaluate changes in system, agency and individual performance will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session participants will be able to: Describe the components of a practice change intervention. Identify interventions used to integrate COD services within MH and SA agencies Identify evaluation methods for statewide policy change

Keywords: Mental Health System, Mental Health Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Dr. Zubritsky is a senior research scientist and the Director of Collaborative Initiatives for the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania; as such she has received funding from numerous private foundations and state and federal programs. Dr. Zubritsky has extensive experience in management and organizational issues in behavioral healthcare systems, including outcome measurement, quality assurance measurement, process evaluation and the design and implementation of integrated care and of cultural competency initiatives for behavioral health systems and in mental health and aging populations. She is the author of the SAMHSA supported “Standards and Competencies for Mental Health Services for Latino Adults.” She has been supported by the Pew Foundation frequently to develop programs for vulnerable populations, with an emphasis on older adults. She served as principal investigator of PRISM-E, the largest national study of older adults and mental health; is a primary designer of PA’s GATEWAY and Alliance mental health and aging initiatives; and has developed and implemented mental health and aging community collaborative partnerships in other states. Dr. Zubritsky is a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Aging, the University of Pennsylvania’s Public Health Consortium and the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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