Behavioral Health Assessments
For healthcare organizations, providing comprehensive behavioral health services means more than offering a range of programs. With primary care serving as the medical home, the goal is for any door to be the right door for behavioral health support; wherever people enter the system, they should be connected to the care they need. The challenge is making primary care, inpatient, outpatient, crisis, and substance use services work together so people stay connected to support as their needs change. Understanding where workflows, staff roles, referrals, and transitions support that coordination, and where they create gaps, is an important starting point for improvement.
Southcentral Foundation’s behavioral health assessments help healthcare organizations strengthen behavioral health services and advance their integration with primary care and other services. Assessments can address inpatient care, outpatient services, crisis services, and other mental health and substance use services, as well as how these services work together across the continuum of care. Drawing on over two decades of experience, SCF helps organizations identify strengths and opportunities to improve service delivery and build more integrated, coordinated care.
SCF’s assessment team includes experienced healthcare leaders and subject matter experts from SCF. The team typically includes at least one behavioral health clinician in a supervisor, manager, or director-level role. Other team members may include improvement advisors, clinical managers, and senior leaders.
During the assessment, consultants visit service locations to review documents, observe clinical workflows, and interview staff. The scope is agreed upon with the organization prior to the visit, and may focus on specific behavioral health programs or services across multiple care settings. Interviews include behavioral health staff, senior leaders, and administrative support staff to understand care delivery, operations, and coordination across services.
An assessment can cover many aspects of behavioral health service delivery, including but not limited to:
- Inpatient, outpatient, crisis, detoxification, and other mental health and substance use services
- Leadership, workforce roles, and responsibilities
- Behavioral health integration with primary care and other services, including care coordination, referrals, and transitions across care settings
- Clinical management, service delivery workflows, and operations
- Caseload management, service access, and continuity of care
After the assessment, SCF provides a report outlining observed strengths, opportunities for improvement, and actionable recommendations to support service quality, efficiency, and customer and employee satisfaction. Consultants then review the report with the organization’s leadership in a debrief session.
If you would like more information about behavioral health assessments, or any aspect of SCF’s Nuka System of Care, feel free to contact the SCF Learning Institute. SCF also offers integrated care team assessments, which you can learn more about in our integrated care team assessment blog.
