Products & Reports: Task Group Strategies
The primary purpose of the Task Groups
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657KB] is to provide
substantive technical expertise to the Mental Health Transformation Project's (MHTP) effort to
achieve mental health Transformation in Washington. The Task Groups consist of state agency, local
and national experts in the following six areas:
- Evidence-Based Practices
- Management Information Systems (MIS)
- Fiscal Systems
- Health Promotion and Prevention Social Marketing Campaign
- Cultural Competence
- Evaluation
The Task Groups began meeting in late April, 2006, and were charged with the development of strategies and alternatives, based on the Outcome measures and goals defined by the Subcommittees. The Transformation Work Group (TWG) prioritized and approved the strategies in June 2006.
In considering the recommendations of the Task Groups, the TWG focused on the overarching principles and approaches, rather than focusing on specific, individual strategies. This reflects an understanding among the TWG members that implementation activities will undoubtedly reveal unanticipated challenges, barriers, or sequencing issues. Additional strategies may need to be developed if gaps emerge, and limitations discovered during planning and implementation may require reprioritization or elimination of some strategies.
The TWG's actions from the June 16 meeting are detailed below.
Cultural Competency Task Group
Task Group Products:
- Definition Statement
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18KB]
- Overarching Recommendatio
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25KB]
- Presentation
[
416KB] - Strategies
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67KB]
TWG Action:
The TWG defers adoption of the proposal to establish an Interdepartmental Cultural Competence Coordinating Council to a future date, after additional research is conducted on effective efforts to infuse cultural competence at a systemic level. The TWG, however, honors the strategies put forth by the Cultural Competence task group, while recognizing the need for a broader discussion of effective approaches to achieving greater levels of cultural competence in Washington's mental health system. The TWG requests that during Year 2 of the Mental Health Transformation Proejct the task group continue to refine the existing strategies, and develop new strategies that seek to infuse cultural competence throughout the systems that provide mental health services.
Evaluation Task Group
Task Group Products:
TWG Action:
The TWG accepts the Evaluation Recommendations proposed by the Evaluation Task Group, with an added reference to the importance of consistency in definitions, in standards, and in the types of data collected. Once transformation strategies are clarified and articulated in the Comprehensive Mental Health Plan (CMHP), we (broadly defined) can collectively define what data and measures are needed to conduct effective evaluation, keeping in mind the desire to standardize data elements, and the desire to minimize the impact of data collection.
Evidence-based, Promising and Emerging Practices (EBPEP) Task Group
Task Group Products:
TWG Action:
The TWG accepted the scope of the Task Group's strategies as set forth in their definitions of evidence-based, promising, and emerging practices, and system strategies. The TWG also accepts the preliminary inventory of evidence-based, promising and emerging practices identified as potential approaches to achieving the outcomes adopted by the TWG. In Year 2, the TWG and members of the EBPEP Task Group will work with agencies to further refine and prioritize these strategies, and to develop implementation plans as appropriate.
Fiscal Systems Task Group
Task Group Products:
TWG Action:
The TWG approves the approach proposed by the Fiscal Task Group to defer detailed fiscal systems strategies and adopts the principles defined by the task group to help determine detailed strategies in Year 2 when more information is known. The TWG directs the Task Group to add to Principle #4 a reference to the importance of stability in funding.
The TWG recommended to the Task Group they expand the membership to include representation from other organizations as well, such as the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED), and the Employment Security Department (ESD).
IT Task Group
TWG Action:
The TWG agrees that the state should adopt strategies that will support linked and/or integrated data across systems. When considering strategies related to integration of data across systems, particular attention should be given to the relative costs and benefits of each specific strategy, and to the impacts on consumer privacy.
Further, the TWG agrees that the state should further explore ways to make data from multiple providers about encounters with individual consumers, available to those consumers and their multiple providers and case managers, "on the ground" in "real time". The TWG believes this should be a systemic approach that includes all state systems, and should not be limited to only mental health related systems. Pursuing strategies that would further this concept would necessarily include systems that contain data related to specific individuals, therefore it is even more critical that impacts on consumer privacy and consent be thoroughly addressed. Particular attention should also be given to the relative costs and benefits of each specific strategy.
The TWG believes that further exploration of the feasibility of a Global Consumer Information Center consumer level record for both public and privately funded mental health services should be deferred for future consideration.
The TWG requests that the IT Task Group conduct a high-level assessment of their strategies to determine costs, resources, and implementation timelines. The Task Group should focus their assessment on those strategies they believe are the most feasible.
Social Marketing Task Group
Task Group Products:
TWG Action:
The TWG approves the research and design approach proposed by the Social Marketing Task Group, with its initial emphasis on mental health service providers, policy makers, and consumers. The Task Group should also make clear in their report that employers are also a key target audience for social marketing efforts, and that employers need to be engaged to help the broader public understand and believe that change is possible.
