245960 Innovative approaches to the advancement of Pennsylvania's integrated services across the state's aging and behavioral health systems of care

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Cynthia Zubritsky, PhD , Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Karen Fortuna, MSW , Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Linda Shumaker, RN , Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition, Harrisburg, PA
Aging and behavioral health agencies have traditionally provided distinct and separate treatment for older adults with behavioral health disorders. With the increasing older adult population in need of behavioral health services, it is becoming more important to develop treatment and cost-effective methods to provide coordinated cross systems care for this growing population. The lack of a coordinated model in designing and delivering care has resulted in a fragmented continuum of care with substandard care and ineffective treatment outcomes for older adults with behavioral health disorders.

To advance Pennsylvania's integrated services across the state's aging and behavioral health systems of care, the Integrative Case Conference Series (ICCS) was developed by the Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition and the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research. This presentation describes the ICCS innovative use of videoconferencing as a forum for aging and behavioral health providers statewide to collaborate and discuss complicated consumer cases with cross-system needs and develop cross-system solutions for working with older adults with behavioral health issues.

The ICCS's model has allowed for the expansion of Pennsylvania's aging and behavioral health systems of care organizational effectiveness, addressed system fragmentation and duplication, and coordinated behavioral health treatment needs of older adults, while promoting the transformation of the distinctive organizational cultures of both the aging and the behavioral health system.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related research
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
1.Understand how to identify system barriers to aging and behavioral health systems integration; 2.Identify the key components of a cross-systems’ integrated case conference; and 3.Identify the key elements necessary to develop a statewide video case conference.

Keywords: Aging, Mental Health Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As the Director of Integrated Primary Care and Behavioral Health Initiatives for the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, I have extensive experience in management and organizational issues in behavioral healthcare systems, including integrated systems design, outcome measurement, quality assurance measurement, process evaluation and cultural measures for behavioral health and aging systems. I am a senior fellow at the Penn-MARCH Institute, the Leonard Davis Institute and the University of Pennsylvania Institute on Aging.
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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