The Mental Health Center Partners with Netsmart

The Mental Health Center of Denver (MHCD) and Netsmart are partnering to develop and share best practices for recovery-based mental health care.

“MHCD’s recovery model was developed using extensive clinical research and advanced statistical techniques, thereby ensuring accuracy and precision of the assessments to predict progress toward recovery”

This partnership will integrate assessments and analytic data displays from MHCD’s unique recovery model into Netsmart’s CareRecords™ (electronic health records, or EHRs), providing real-time client progress data to clinicians. This integration will enable clinicians to more easily gauge consumer progress and improve treatment outcomes and recovery.

Real-time clinical decision support tied to treatment outcomes is critical to understanding and predicting progress toward recovery from mental illness. The partnership pairs two leaders — MHCD in clinical practice and research, and Netsmart in technological advances in health care and informatics.

MHCD is known nationally for its successful groundbreaking approach to mental health treatment. As a core part of this effort, it developed a robust set of assessments to measure mental health recovery from both the consumer and clinician perspectives. Consumers evaluate their progress regularly in a brief assessment. This assessment informs clinicians about progress, while also serving to improve recovery itself by enhancing consumer engagement in the treatment process. Clinicians assess and track progress toward recovery on several key recovery dimensions. Data is reviewed by the clinician and the consumer to evaluate progress and collectively determine next steps in treatment.

MHCD has already trained a number of organizations across the nation in how to use these unique assessments to improve clinical practice, as well as in other key strategies for recovery-based transformation. Through its use of recovery-based assessments and clinical practice, MHCD has transitioned more than 900 seriously mentally ill (SMI) persons from assertive community treatment (an intensive, costly treatment program) to less intensive, more affordable levels of treatment. In doing so, they estimate that they are saving more than $3 million per year.

Netsmart will incorporate the data provided by the MHCD assessments into its CareRecords and myHealthpointe.portal™ consumer portal solution to help clinicians evaluate the level of care needed and access critical data at various stages of the treatment process, driving improved outcomes. In addition, treatment decisions will be tracked and used in future predictive models to inform clinical decisions and improve care for all consumers. Netsmart believes such efforts will contribute to comprehensive models that will define the future of mental health treatment and recovery.

“MHCD’s recovery model was developed using extensive clinical research and advanced statistical techniques, thereby ensuring accuracy and precision of the assessments to predict progress toward recovery,” stated Wes Williams, Ph.D., vice president and chief information officer at MHCD. “The key to the widespread adoption and success of the MHCD recovery model will be its integration into the EHR, with real-time consumer progress data to clinicians. With Netsmart as our partner, we feel confident that this can be realized.”

“As healthcare reform evolves and new practices develop, providers will be required to report on and benchmark recovery and consumer engagement data,” said Mike Valentine, chief executive officer, Netsmart. “We’re pleased to provide a first-of-a-kind assessment and analytics system with real-time progress data, a critical element of this innovative recovery-based care initiative with MHCD.”

For a broader perspective on consumer engagement, download the white paper, “The Recovery Movement,” co-authored by Roy Starks, M.A., vice president, Rehabilitation Services & Reaching Recovery at MHCD, and Dennis Morrison, Ph.D., Netsmart chief clinical officer. The paper discusses innovative strategies for making the shift toward greater consumer engagement. It also outlines the critical links between quality provider/patient engagement, outcomes and quality of care.

“This joint effort directly supports the consumer-directed health model, which promotes increased consumer choice and empowerment of people’s own health care decisions,” said Starks.

About the Mental Health Center of Denver
The Mental Health Center of Denver (MHCD) is a private, not-for-profit, 501 (c) (3), community mental health center, providing treatment and prevention services to the residents of the City and County of Denver since its founding in 1989. MHCD believes that people can, and do, recover from mental illness, and that treatment works and improves the lives of people of all ages. Through more than 35 community sites, mental health providers in 18 Denver public schools, collaborations with community partners and home-based outreach, MHCD provides a comprehensive, innovative and accessible array of mental health and substance abuse services to over 15,000 children, families and adults annually.

About Netsmart
Netsmart is committed to helping health and human services providers deliver effective, outcomes-based care. More than 23,000 client organizations, including 450,000 care providers and more than 40 state systems use Netsmart solutions to help improve the quality of life for more than 25 million people each day. Netsmart clients include mental health and addiction services agencies, health homes, psychiatric hospitals, private and group mental health practices, public health departments, social services and child and family services agencies, managed care organizations, and vital records offices.

Netsmart’s CareFabric™, a framework of innovative clinical and business solutions and services, supports integrated, coordinated delivery of health services across the spectrum of care.

Netsmart’s Healthcare IT Value Model, a vendor-agnostic planning and measurement system, provides a path for health and human services organizations to evaluate where on the healthcare IT spectrum they should focus their efforts, the value associated with that strategic decision and a comparison with peer organizations nationwide.

Netsmart is pleased to support the EveryDay Matters Foundation, which was established for behavioral and public health organizations to learn from each other and share their causes and stories. For more information, visit www.everydaymatters.com.

Learn more about how Netsmart is changing the face of health care today. Visit www.ntst.com, call 1-800-472-5509, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, like us on Facebook or visit us on YouTube.

CareRecord, myHealthPointe.portal and CareFabric are trademarks of Netsmart Technologies, Inc.