The Behavioral Health Treatment Needs Assessment Toolkit is intended to provide states and other payers with information on the prevalence and use of behavioral health services; step-by-step instructions to generate projections of utilization under insurance expansions; and factors to consider when deciding the appropriate mix of behavioral health benefits, services, and providers to meet the needs of newly eligible populations. The Toolkit was developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The Toolkit provides guidance on key questions that states and other payers may need to answer regarding behavioral health treatment needs and service use. It also summarizes how several states have approached planning for newly eligible populations. The Toolkit provides estimates of the prevalence of behavioral health disorders and use of behavioral health services among populations who are currently uninsured and may become eligible for insurance. Finally, the Toolkit includes a section that describes how users can access and analyze other data on behavioral health needs by particular subpopulations within states, income groups, insurance status groups, and age groups.
This Toolkit describes how state mental health and substance abuse authorities can use data to plan for the quality of health and behavioral health care nationally and within states, communities, territories, and tribes. There are three broad aims on which states are asked to focus to improve the quality of health and behavioral health care nationally:
- Better Care: Improve the overall quality, by making behavioral health care more person-, family-, and community-centered, reliable, accessible, and safe.
- Healthy People/Healthy Communities: Improve the behavioral health of the U.S. population by supporting proven interventions to address behavioral, social, cultural, and environmental determinants of positive behavioral health in addition to delivering higher quality behavioral health care.
- Affordable Care: Increase the value of behavioral health care for individuals, families, employers, and governments.
Population of focus: States
Links to resource:
Date: 2013
Organization: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration