Psychiatric Disabilities/Mental Illness

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) was assigned to develop outcome indicators to assess the "health and welfare" of recipients of Medicaid HCBS. AHRQ also was required to use the outcome indicators to describe the health and welfare of this population. The outcome indicators are presented by individual attributes and area characteristics. The health of the HCBS population is also described within the context of State policies and service availability.

The Archive provides easy access to current and comprehensive data on substance abuse and mental health. All data sets are available for download directly from the SAMHDA website in multiple file formats. In addition, SAMHDA offers online data analysis, tools to customize graphs/charts, interactive maps, bibliographies, and user support.

This report is an update of an earlier report, "Americans with Disabilities: 2005." The 2010 findings indicate that approximately 56.7 million Americans have a disability, an increase of 2.2 million since 2005. Additionally, the number and percentage of Americans with a severe disability also increased. This document also presents descriptive statistics about disability prevalence and economic conditions of the people with disabilities.

This fact sheet traces the efforts to improve State systems of care for children with serious emotional disturbance (SED) after the Child and Adolescent Service System Program was implemented in 1984. Information on the benefits of respite services for families and caregivers of children with SED, indicators of SED, and strategies for respite program implementation can be found here. Resources to different organizations are also provided for families and children with SED.

Summarizes a program evaluation of a Federally-funded state-based system to protect patient rights for those with significant mental health disability. The PAIMI Program was initiated in 1986 in response to congressional findings of widespread abuse, neglect, and exploitation of individuals in state psychiatric institutions. Twenty-two years later, the program is still addressing those issues, along with new problems arising from delivery of mental health services in community-based settings.

This resource for programs includes State Lifespan Respite Programs, that provide respite and are interested in developing & implementing participant-directed respite, especially through voucher programs. Included are: overview materials that provide content information regarding participant direction, examples from two states that currently implement participant-directed respite programs using a voucher system, important tax and financial information, & resources for additional materials.

States serve a large number of people with dementia & caregivers in their Aging Networks & LTSS systems. This involves accommodating the needs of a population experiencing a variety of physical, cognitive, & behavioral symptoms from dementia, along with other medical conditions. This brief discusses why states should be concerned about dementia capability in their LTSS systems, describes the components of model dementia-capable systems, & reports how states have addressed dementia capability.

When assessing the needs of persons with dementia and caregivers in the community, it is important to understand the number of persons affected and their unique needs for services and programs. This toolkit complements the issue brief titled Making the Long-Term Services and Supports System Work for People With Dementia and Their Caregivers by identifying resources that states and communities can use to design initiatives to ensure that programs are dementia-capable.

This report reviews the available literature & conducted interviews with people with Alzheimer’s & other dementias who live alone, caregivers, health care & social service professionals to obtain their views about the need and effective ways to meet those needs. Programs are also described that have been tested by community agencies as well as discussions related to public policy and practice implications.

Families USA released their latest brief that helps advocates understand the basics of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and their potential for improving patient care. The brief includes the basics, payment and quality measurements, determining shared savings and losses, and beneficiary assignment and notification processes.