Quality Improvement in Behavioral Health

William T. O'Donohue is professor and chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada--Reno. For the past 16 years Dr. O'Donohue has directed a free clinic supported by a National Institute of Justice grant which assesses and treats sexually abused children. He regularly testifies as an expert witness in this area and has published numerous books and articles in peer-reviewed journals on adolescent development, child sexual abuse, and forensic psychology. Dr. O'Donohue was an advisor to the DSM-V Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association and is a member of the Nevada Attorney General's Victims of Crime Subcommittee.Alexandros Maragakis, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Arkansas. He has published numerous articles and book chapters that focus on the integration of primary and behavioral healthcare systems and the utility of quality improvement within thosesettings. His clinical work involves delivering integrated behavioral health services within federally qualified healthcare centers and community mental health clinics.

• Basic Principles of QI. – What is QI: an overview. – The need for QI in behavioral health. – An overview of QI theory. -  The relationship between QI and clinical science. – Apple and QI. – The Toyota way. – QI and cost. – Key Tools in QI. – Measuring satisfaction. – Flowcharts to understand processes. – Run charts, histograms, Pareto diagrams. – Clinical tools. – Cause and effect diagrams. – Checklists. – Benchmarking. – Clinical effectiveness. – Measuring cost. – Project planning. – Applications of QI. – Patient Journey British Health Service. – Intermountain Health Care: Evidence-based care. – QI and substance abuse. – QI and multisystemic therapy. – Integrated care and QI. – Department of Veterans Affairs’ electronic health record. – Qi and training in behavioral health. – QI and SMI. – QI and HMO. – QI and population health. – QI and the APA. – QI and patient feedback. – QI and integrity of research. – QI and correctional mental health. – QI and chronic pain management. –QI and chronic disease management. -  Concluding remarks.​

“Quality Improvement in Behavioral Health is … a welcome and needed contribution to the QI literature that is uniquely focused on behavioral care. It will be valuable for a wide audience that includes any mental health professional or paraprofessional with systems’ responsibilities, either in a leadership position or in the trenches: hospital or health center psychologists, social workers, administrators, directors of behavioral health systems, and/or any practitioners within those systems. … I highly recommend reading this book … .” (Anne L. Glowinski, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 62 (8), February, 2017)