UELP Mental Health Services Impact Assessment Tools

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (BHCS), through Mental Health Services Act Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) funding has provided a successful model to serve historically un and underserved ethnic and linguistically isolated populations - UELP programs. Currently this program model focuses on the broad ethnic communities of Afghan/South Asian, Asian/Pacific Islander (API), Native American, and Latino residents. All UELP programs utilize a core set of strategies with flexibility to implement the program based on a community’s needs, resources, culture and language. The foundational strategies of this model include: 1) Education and Outreach, 2) Mental Health Consultation and Training and 3) Early Intervention/Preventative Counseling. County funded services are currently conducted in 29 different languages. While anecdotally yielding multiple benefits and impacts since 2010, what was needed was a formal, scientific method of evaluating program impacts. In 2014, in order to quantify, evaluate and monitor the actual efficacy and impact of these mental health services in UELP communities, BHCS and seven UELP programs convened a working group which created an outcome-based survey. Two pilot survey administrations resulted in the development of two community assessment tools – a Health Assessment and a Wellness Client Satisfaction Survey – both now critical to evaluating UELP mental health program impacts.