Evaluating Transforming Day Programs: Is there a Difference in Acute Service Utilization between Community Intergrated and Traditional Partial Program Users?

In keeping with research that has shown that integration of persons with psychiatric illness into the community has been positively linked with recovery, the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities Services (DBH/IDS) began a system-wide initiative in 2007 to transform its traditional Partial Hospitalization (PH) program into a recovery-oriented, community-integrated program. The traditional PH model emphasizes symptom containment with participants receiving services at the service agency site. Service delivery in the transformation initiative involves community inclusive, individually-tailored, and choice-based services with participants taking active roles in their recovery planning in Community Integrated Recovery Centers (CIRCs). Using a pre-test/post-test design with a contemporaneous comparison group we conducted a quasi-experimental retrospective study which compared 1-year outcomes of 439 participants who were in the 'transforming' CIRC program with a group of 584 participants who remained in traditional PH program. The presentation will highlight the transformation program components as well as findings of differences between the two groups with respect to acute service utilization (Emergency and Inpatient Services) and overall costs of psychiatric service utilization in the post period.