Research & Insights

Behavioral health

The behavioral health crisis won't change — unless we do. Without a radical shift in approach, we risk backsliding on progress toward behavioral health and health equity goals, having negative business implications across sectors. Our work uncovers the tangible steps leaders must take to meaningfully and equitably restructure the behavioral healthcare system.

Featured Insights

ChristianaCare's comprehensive, CFO-approved approach to behavioral health care

In this episode, guest host Abby Burns invites ChristianaCare’s Chief Biopsychosocial Officer, Erin Booker, to discuss how Erin is driving—and making the case for—a comprehensive and holistic behavioral health care strategy. Erin shares how she converted her CFO to be a champion for integrated behavioral health care and how she approaches workforce challenges, partnership, and policy advancement.

Research

Tactics to build a stronger behavioral health system

To make meaningful progress, industry stakeholders must collectively shift from short-term, surface level approaches to tactics designed to improve the functioning of the U.S. behavioral healthcare system on a structural level. Learn about the unique role each sector of the healthcare system (in addition to governmental policymakers) can play.

Infographic

Growing your organization's behavioral health strategic function

Use this tool to assess the maturity of your behavioral health strategic function and identify near-term focus areas across four key domains: governance, data, goal setting, and partnerships. Progressing along the continuum will strengthen your internal infrastructure for behavioral health strategic planning and operations.

Expert Insight

3 'rate-limiting steps' key to improving our behavioral healthcare system

To correct for foundational flaws baked into our behavioral healthcare system, we need structural change. But what does that really mean? We’ve identified three non-negotiable steps we need to collectively take in order to improve behavioral healthcare.

Cheat Sheet

Understand the key stakeholders in behavioral health

For patients, navigating the U.S. behavioral health system is often a confusing and disjointed experience. Use this resource library to better understand the roles of the primary stakeholders in the behavioral healthcare sector, including organizations that deliver and pay for care.

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Tackle these challenges

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Your organization's role
Partner across the industry

Behavioral health leaders well understand the current challenges in behavioral healthcare, but they may need to gather additional intel to make the case to their leadership for added investment. To start:

Use data to articulate how the problem manifests today, including the inequities in behavioral health and the behavioral healthcare workforce shortage.
Learn about the root causes of today’s challenges to better understand how to move forward.

Few healthcare organizations have a robust strategic function for the behavioral health side of their business, but they can with these steps:

Assess where your organization falls on this maturity model.
Select key metrics to track progress moving forward and analyze growth forecasts to plan scenarios for future market volumes.
Review our playbooks for provider organizations, health plans, digital health organizations, life sciences companies, and employers for sector-specific steps to restructure your behavioral healthcare system in the long term. And advocate for these state and federal policies.

Cross-industry partnerships are essential for achieving structural change in the behavioral healthcare system. F ew organizations, however, have experience forming these coalitions. To begin:

Take the time to understand the complex, fragmented system and each player’s role, strengths, weaknesses, incentives.
Reach a consensus with cross-industry partners on the three rate-limiting steps to prioritize: establishing universal definitions of quality care, determining viable reimbursement rates, and reducing demographic disparities.
Learn from leaders in the field who have already made progress with successful partnerships that have established national substance use care standards, raised reimbursement rates and built a diverse pipeline for behavioral health roles, and reduced high-cost behavioral health utilization.

Recent insights from around the industry

Case Study

How GRAND Mental Health reduced psychiatric inpatient hospitalizations by 93%

Read our case study to learn how they implemented their 24/7 stabilization services to triage patients and easy virtual access points.

Expert Insight

Your role in combating the health impacts of incarceration

Incarceration negatively impacts health in three key ways, and it disproportionately impacts people of color. Here’s how healthcare organizations can play a positive role for individuals as they reenter the community.

Case Study

CareOregon’s 3 partnerships to reduce the behavioral health workforce shortage

In response to a workforce shortage in Oregon in 2020, CareOregon established several partnerships to grow and strengthen the workforce supply by investing in the psychiatry pipeline, improving reimbursement, and incentivizing the delivery of culturally responsive care.

Case Study

How Shatterproof established national substance use care standards

Building industry consensus to promote consistent and accountable substance use care.

Go deeper on our latest research

Population health

Learn tactics for effectively managing behavioral health conditions to drive overall population health and reduce total cost of care.

Health equity

See our resources on how to advance health equity across your workforce, patients, and community.

Social determinants of health

Learn how to address social determinants of health and their root causes: structural racism and intergenerational poverty.

Workforce

Learn tactics to address the behavioral health needs of your workforce and build resilience and retention.