Association Between Quality Measures and Mortality in Individuals With Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders

Posted on: November 21, 2016

Recently, a group of my colleagues and I completed an article for the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment: “Association Between Quality Measures and Mortality in Individuals With Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders.” We were concerned that individuals with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders have increased rates of mortality relative to the general population. In addition, the relationship between measures of treatment quality and mortality for these individuals is unknown. Our study led us to the following, as described in our article’s introduction: (more…)

Posted in: Co-Occurring Disorders

Care For Veterans With Mental And Substance Use Disorders

Posted on: October 25, 2016

Veterans have a high frequency of serious mental and substance use disorders. The return of US service members with symptoms indicative of serious mental disorders has focused attention on the difficulties of providing high-quality treatment to this population. Although returning service members are only 4.1 percent of the total veteran population, their complex psychological needs have made delivering high-quality treatment for mental and substance use disorders a national priority. (more…)

Posted in: Co-Occurring Disorders, Public Policy

Saving Lives of Individuals With Co-Occurring Disorders

Posted on: October 10, 2016

News & Insights from Santa Monica Psychiatrist Katherine Watkins, M.D.

The data are stark. Mental and substance use disorders are leading causes of preventable deaths. This fact is especially significant for institutions within the health case system. These institutions do not have much influence over some causes of premature mortality, such as accidents and homicides, but they can control the quality of care they deliver, which may indeed have a significant effect on decreasing premature mortality.

Highlights

The first study to validate quality measures for co-occurring disorders.
Four out of five quality measures are associated with decreased mortality.
Findings are unlikely to be the result of unmeasured confounders.
Increasing the number of visits of any modality is likely to decrease mortality.

(more…)

Posted in: Co-Occurring Disorders