Complex Case Planning for Children & Youth Under Age 21: Steering Team Recommendations
The Department of Human Services (DHS) Steering Team kicked off in December 2019 to look at statewide challenges
and solutions after national
and statewide research and data collection were completed to ensure a
comprehensive and quality service array is available to children and youth with complex mental and behavioral health needs and their families in Pennsylvania. This
research and data analysis formed the basis for eight recommendations:
Recommendation 1
|
Build a coordinated service array,
to include evidence-based and promising practices, that meet the needs of
children and youth with complex behavioral health needs in the community.- Proactively
identify those in need of services through data analytics and screening, using
statewide methodology and Medical Assistance claims data.
- Inventory
the current service array to map what is available and where for this
population.
- Enhance
prevention efforts through the provision of effective services in the home and
community.
|
Recommendation 2
|
Recruit and retain foster homes
able to care for children and youth with complex behavioral health needs.
- Develop
a comprehensive strategy for recruiting, training, supporting, and retaining
foster and adoptive families.
- Provide
supportive services to foster and adoptive families for stabilization.
- Review
per diems to ensure they are set at appropriate levels.
|
Recommendation 3
|
Enhance services, individualized
treatment, and trauma-informed care for children and youth in residential
treatment facilities with complex behavioral health needs.
- Define
a level of care that provides clinical treatment for physical and/or
behavioral health challenges in addition to increased supervision.
- Develop
criteria and credentials related to trauma treatment to be applied to child
residential treatment facilities.
- Establish
performance standards for monitoring outcomes of
residential treatment facilities.
|
Recommendation 4
| Develop psychiatric residential
treatment facility regulations in coordination with the rewrite of Chapter 3800
regulations.
|
Recommendation 5
| Evaluate feasible options for a statewide process for provision of intensive, flexible services for
adjudicated children and youth with complex behavioral health needs.
|
Recommendation 6
| Ensure secure and non-secure treatment options and specialized care capacity in the Youth Development Center/Youth Forestry Camp (YDC/YFC) system.
|
Recommendation 7
| Review
and enhance DHS’s complex case review process and bulletin, to include a formal
structure and department lead to oversee care coordination efforts and track
data and outcomes.
|
Recommendation 8
| Coordinate
with and educate county agencies, commissioners, dependency and delinquency
judges, and managed care organizations on complex behavioral health needs,
trauma, individualized treatment needs, and alternative services.
|