In response to the need for high-quality mental health care for its beneficiaries at appropriate cost to the government, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) has developed a quality and ut...
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In response to the need for high-quality mental health care for its beneficiaries at appropriate cost to the government, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) has developed a quality and utilization management program that requires contracted organizations to manage care through appropriate means. The system provides for oversight of utilization management contractors by a national quality monitoring contractor and a proposed utilization management criteria set based on an analysis of criteria sets currently used in government and industry. This article describes the program at its current level of development.
Current environmental conditions such as limited financial resources, cost containment, rising consumer expectation, and perhaps more stringent regulation of available public monies to support social services signal d...
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This article presents a multidisciplinary approach to emergency mental health triage in the U.S., a practical medical screening system for people suffering from psychiatric crisis. Traditionally, triage is used most c...
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This article presents a multidisciplinary approach to emergency mental health triage in the U.S., a practical medical screening system for people suffering from psychiatric crisis. Traditionally, triage is used most commonly during disasters to provide for the classification of physically ill patients according to their needs for medical care. Utilizing the fundamental concepts inherent in medical triage, the authors developed the Mental Health Program or Triage, a screening activity by which a team of professionals determines the treatment disposition of those persons in psychiatric crisis. The program was developed to benefit the community, the professional, and the patient. When a patient manifesting symptoms of psychiatric crisis enters the hospital emergency department, he or she is offered service through the private or public sector. If the individual selects the public mental health services, the Triage system is activated, and those team members not already present are called into the emergency department. Team members begin the Triage program with a biopsychosocial assessment of the patient's condition. Based on this assessment, the patient is assigned to one of three categories for intervention: the Referral Group, Return Group, or Retain Group. Although all categories reflect an emotional disturbance on the patient's part, they discriminate regarding the extent of the patient's psychiatric involvement.
The article describes a computer program designed specifically to assist mental health professionals in a community mental health center. Computers are used in social services for medical record keeping, bookkeeping, ...
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The article describes a computer program designed specifically to assist mental health professionals in a community mental health center. Computers are used in social services for medical record keeping, bookkeeping, scheduling, demographics and other functions. However, computer technology has been slow in ascending the ranks of social workers in upper-level management and professional positions. The program, priority clinical message (PCM), has been in use at the Ozark Guidance Center, a comprehensive community mental health center in northwest Arkansas, for one year. The solution to the problems was a computer program that displays selected, urgent clinical messages on the medical records computer screen. The messages appear whenever the medical record or billing information is called up for a client at risk. Clinical messages consisted of descriptions of critical situations or of useful information in case of an emergency. Therapists who submit messages are required to identify themselves as part of the message and to document this by signing the PCM form. The information for the form can be taken by telephone.
Poor women of color who are disproportionately both infected and affected by HIV/AIDS also face multiple lifestyle and psychosocial burdens that complicate effective delivery of health care, thereby contributing to th...
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Poor women of color who are disproportionately both infected and affected by HIV/AIDS also face multiple lifestyle and psychosocial burdens that complicate effective delivery of health care, thereby contributing to their poorer prognosis. Addressing these factors within the context of HIV/AIDS primary care for women is the aim of Whole Life, a program to integrate mental health services into primary cave for HIV-infected pregnant and non-pregnant women. Whole Life utilizes a theoretically derived clinical services model that provides data for both clinical cave and patient outcomes research within the constraints of a clinical setting. During a woman's first two clinic visits, data ave gathered in structured interviews with standardized instruments-adapted for relevance to the population-that meet clinical and service needs, as well as measure components of the Whole Life model. Interviews are conducted by existing front-line staff who have been trained in using these instruments to gather information typically recorded in clinical notes. The implementation of Whole Life to date clearly demonstrates the feasibility of mental health-primary cave services integration in a publicly funded HIV primary care clinic serving poor women of color. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.
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