Recently Funded Projects: Optimizing Behavioral Health Homes

Optimizing Behavioral Health Homes by Focusing on Outcomes that Matter Most for Adults with Serious Mental Illness

Funder: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

Summary: Adults with serious mental illness frequently have unmet needs that place them at risk for adverse health outcomes. Addressing these needs is the goal of this pilot program, which will test two promising ways to promote the health, wellness, and recovery of this high-risk population: one will help patients manage their care through a web-based portal and peer support, and the other through interactions with nurses during clinic visits. The program will compare the impact of these services on patient outcomes and explore how patient characteristics and level of involvement in services affect outcomes.

Nearly 3,000 Medicaid-enrolled adults who are at risk for chronic medical conditions and receive care at rural community mental health centers (CMHC) will be targeted for participation.

Focus areas include: 1) the patient's expectations of overall health and wellness after engaging in the new services by CMHC's, 2) potential advantages and disadvantages to patients participating in the services, 3) ways the patient can become more active in managing their own health care, and 4) identification of services that will have the greatest impact on the patient's decisions about their own health care.

Community Care Behavioral Health, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Columbia Montour Snyder Union Counties of the Pennsylvania Service System will collaborate and facilitate this project. By highlighting services that improve outcomes for patients under a variety of circumstances, the pilot program will advance health system improvement efforts to avoid untimely death and disease in the target population.