Resilience

Remote Assessment and Treatment via Telemedicine Combined With Onsite Case Management Enhance Access to Mental Health Services for Low-Income and Minority Students

AHRQ Innovations Exchange, University of Texas Medical Branch, 8/2010.

Summary

In collaboration with several community partners, the University of Texas Medical Branch provides remote mental health assessment and treatment services via videoconferencing technology and onsite case management to low-income, minority, and other students and parents in four school-based primary care clinics in the Galveston Independent School District. The program's goal is to improve student mental health status and behavior, which is expected to lead to a reduction in student absenteeism, drug use, and violent behavior in the schools.

Click here to read the Innovation Profile.

Mobile Clinic Provides Comprehensive Medical Home for Homeless and At-Risk Youth, Reducing Use of Emergency Department and More Followup Care

AHRQ Innovations Exchange, Children's Health Fund, HomeBase Youth Services, and Phoenix Children's Hospital,

Summary

A collaborative partnership between Phoenix Children’s Hospital, HomeBase Youth Services, and Children’s Health Fund, Crews’n Healthmobile Homeless Youth Program operates a free-standing clinic and a mobile medical unit that provide hope and holistic health care to Arizona's homeless and at-risk youth and young families. Preventive and comprehensive services include medical, health education, and mental health services at numerous sites where homeless and other at-risk youth gather in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Through partnerships with community agencies, the clinic also provides referrals for needed followup services, including medical and dental care and social services. Regular program participants utilize the emergency department less frequently and are more likely to receive followup care, while both patients and providers report high levels of satisfaction with the program.

Read the Innovation Profile here.

Evidence-Based Programs in Action: Policy and Practice Insights from A Success Story

 National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, Child Trends, April 2010

Summary

This brief profiles the Partnership for Results, a model of local governance designed to implement a broad spectrum of evidence-based programs for the benefit of youth at risk. For a decade, it has operated in Cayuga County in Central New York. The brief describes the Partnership and its results; the elements of its model; obstacles to creating a continuum of evidence-based programs; and principles for replicating the Partnership's governance model.

Click here to access/read the brief.

Inter-Agency Collaborative Provides Home Visits, Specialized Support to At-Risk Families, Leading to Better Prenatal Care, Less Child Abuse, and Fewer Early Childhood Deaths

  AHRQ Innovations Exchange, Family Support Collaborative; Sacramento (CA) County Department of Health and Human Services, Birth & Beyond,  March 2010.

Summary

Birth & Beyond is a voluntary program that provides periodic home visits from trained paraprofessionals, including AmeriCorps members, and specialized support services to high-risk families in select Sacramento County neighborhoods. The program facilitates access to prenatal care, health-related evaluations and services, parenting support, and other appropriate support services, with the goal of reducing the risk of poor birth outcomes and child abuse. The program also operates eight Family Resource Centers in the targeted neighborhoods that have high rates of child abuse. The program improves parenting skills, prenatal care, breastfeeding, immunization rates, and employment prospects, and reduces incidence of depression and family violence. These improvements have, in turn, led to less child abuse and fewer early childhood deaths.

Click here to read the complete AHRQ Innovation Profile.

Report on the Behavioral Health Program for Youth Committed to Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice

Models for Change, Systems Reform in the Juvenile Justice System, Published Jul 29, 2010, Illinois Models for Change Behavioral Health Assessment Team.

Abstract

In response to a request for technical assistance from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), the Illinois Models for Change initiative assembled a team of mental health and corrections experts to evaluate the department’s behavioral health policies, practices and programming. This assessment of DJJ’s behavioral health program is based primarily on a series of site visits to the department’s eight facilities. Given the geographic diversity of the facilities and the expedited timetable for completion of the assessment, this report would not have been possible without the full cooperation of DJJ’s management team. The assessment team would also like to thank DJJ’s staff members and the youth who agreed to be interviewed for the assessment. Their experiences and perspectives helped inform team members’ understanding of DJJ’s current behavioral health programming and areas of future.

Click here to access the full report.

Family Violence Prevention Program Significantly Improves Ability to Identify and Facilitate Treatment for Patients Affected by Domestic Violence

 AHRQ Innovation Exchange, February 2010.

Summary

Kaiser Permanente Northern California's Family Violence Prevention Program seeks to improve the identification, prevention, and treatment of domestic violence by treating it as a serious health condition and using a "systems model" approach. Program components include the creation of a supportive environment that encourages patients to disclose domestic violence to their providers, routine inquiry of high-risk patients, and referrals to mental health providers and community advocates for victims of domestic violence. The program has led to a fivefold increase in the number of patients identified as being victims of domestic violence, a high percentage of identified patients seeking follow up services, and high levels of member satisfaction.

Click here to read the complete AHRQ Innovation Profile.

CeaseFire: Chicago Violence Prevention Program

RWJF, July 2009.

In Chicago, CeaseFire founder Gary Slutkin,M.D., spearheads a new approach to reducing gun violence: "Violence behaves like an infectious disease in every single way. We are applying exactly the methodology for controlling infectious diseases.” CeaseFire engages the community to work with young people at high risk of being involved in violence, provides on-the-spot alternatives to shooting, and works to change social norms about gun violence

Prior to 2000, when CeaseFire was formally launched as an initiative of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention, more than 400 people were killed in Chicago every year. According to a Justice Department study, Chicago has experienced a 41–73 percent drop in shootings and killings in CeaseFire zones since that time, with 16–35 percent of the reduction directly attributable to CeaseFire. In addition, there has been a 100 percent reduction in retaliation murders in five of eight CeaseFire neighborhoods. (RWJF)

Click here to access more information and watch/listen to  interactive slideshows.