Mental Health Services
Research and Evaluation Publications
- Performance Indicator Project reports
- Annual statistical reports
- Inpatient data book
- Satisfaction surveys
- Professional articles and presentations
Mental Health Services is committed to accountability and continuous quality improvement. We support these goals by:
- sharing information about levels of access to care
- the amount and types of services provided/received
- the outcome(s) of care.
This information is shared with a broad community of stakeholders and serves as the basis for an ongoing discussion of the implications of this information for our systems of care.
Performance Indicator Project
Mental Health Services research and statistics (R&S) staff , guided by the recommendations of the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (.pdf-40k) to Vermont's Performance Indicator Project, is responsible for data analysis and reporting of information about Vermont's community-based system of care, the Vermont State Hospital, and designated inpatient units.
R&S also monitors the relationship of Mental Health Services caseloads with other Agency of Human Services programs, and other state agencies. The relationship of caseloads with educational, employment, and criminal justice programs are of special interest.
Cross agency data analysis is facilitated by the use of Probabilistic Population Estimation, a statistical methodology that provides unduplicated counts of the number of individuals served by multiple agencies, without reference to personally identifying information. This method protects the confidentiality of medical records and the privacy of consumers, and is HIPAA compliant.
Annual Reports
Our annual Statistical Report provides basic statistics regarding clients served and services provided by Mental Health Services.
Inpatient Data Book
The annual Inpatient Data Book provides detailed statistics on inpatient behavioral health utilization by Vermont residents in State, general, Veterans', and private psychiatric hospitals.
Satisfaction Surveys
Mental Health Services also solicits input from service recipients and stakeholders through regular mailed surveys.
Recent consumer satisfaction surveys collected the opinions of adults with serious mental illness, recipients of developmental services, recipients of children's services and parents of young service recipients, as well as educators and child protection workers in the state.
Professional Articles and Presentations
Finally, R&S staff regularly publish papers in professional journals and present findings at professional meetings. Many of these publications and presentations involve cross-state collaboration and comparison.