Session: Clinic Technical Assistance Center (Society for Social Work and Research 20th Annual Conference - Grand Challenges for Social Work: Setting a Research Agenda for the Future)

Background and Purpose:The purpose of this symposium is to describe three system level interventions meant to strengthen behavioral health safety net services in New York State as resource scarcity and massive payment/system reform challenge the viability of service organizations committed to providing care of poverty-impacted children and adults. The combined pressure of national healthcare reform and a recession second to the Great Depression destabilized a fragile and fractured public mental health care system. Between 2009 and 2011, for example, states across the U.S. have collectively cut $1.8 billion in behavioral health care, including community-based services for children and adults.

     New York State, which is home to one of the largest public behavioral health systems in the country, is at the forefront of implementing innovative service and payment reforms to respond to ongoing fiscal uncertainties. In 2011, the New York State Office of Mental Health provided support for a [name] to provide technical assistance to provider organizations system wide.  This symposium will describe three state-wide initiatives designed to enhance the fiscal and operational viability of NYS OMH-licensed child and adult mental health clinics by assisting them with redesigning business operations and clinical practices while promoting strategies for managing service capacity. The need for and role of social work leadership in such payment and system reform efforts is also highlighted across the three presentations.