For State University (ISU) Student Health Services
For example, presenting IC models at a university setting is aconsideration that needs to take precedence. Providing students on campus withmultiple points of entry for using mental health services is an importantstrategy for attending to as many students as possible. According to theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (2009), theNational Council for Behavioral Health developed a four-quadrant model todescribe the movement of services in a clinically integrated care setting, andis demonstrated in an image in Appendix A.
ICmodels are structured in various ways depending on the population served (e.g.young adults or older adults) and the setting in which the services areprovided. For example, services may differ greatly for a child, in comparisonto a young adult. A family may play a larger role in the collaboration ofservices that are provided to a child as well as the techniques that areutilized. In addition, the type of mental health condition and severity play avital role in the appropriation of services and referrals that are expectedwhen working with these populations. Evaluatingthe need for integrated care at colleges and universities across the UnitedStates has become a strong emphasis for managing the care that is provided tostudents. On a smaller scale, this study aims to assess and evaluate the needfor integrating care at Illinois State University (ISU) Student Health Services(SHS).
Specifically, this proposed program evaluation aims to gather ISUstudent’s perceptions about the need for integrated care on campus. The intentof the program evaluation serves as a mixed methods approach for determining ifthe current services provided at SHS are effective for students reportingmental health concerns, or if the program requires change. Theresearch methods that will be used include a data collection (i.e. recordreview) of health services. The recordreview will consist of SHS reports from the 2017 academic year that identifies variablessuch as the number of patients served, number of mental health servicesutilized, number of diagnoses, etc.
Additionally, an electronic survey will be disseminatedto the student population at ISU. This research method is a non-experimentalapproach that is used to examine the relationship between ISU student’sperceptions regarding mental health and the need for improving services at SHS.Fundamentally, the purpose of this research is to explore the need for becomingmore integrated at SHS based upon student’s perceptions revealed in the surveyas well as the analysis of clinical records from the previous academic year.
Inorder to capture the concepts that make up this study, constructs andprocedures need to be identified to provide transparency. Measuring the needfor integrated care at SHS is a multifaceted process that is not clearlyobservable. Assessing the concept of integrated care at SHS is a challengingabstraction that is manifested in various programs and services.Conceptualizing the multidimensional construct of this research requiresevaluating student’s perceptions about mental health services provided at SHSthrough a combination of general and mental health questions.
In addition tothe survey, measuring the need for becoming more integrated will be challengingwithout the use of health reports that gather an amalgamation of clinicalmental health services. This research serves to examine the range of conceptswhich include; patient satisfaction, quality of care, and utility of services.A needs-based assessment of patient perceptions is intended to be patient-centered.Deliberately, this multidimensional assessment will serve as a cross-sectionalreport that is intended to capture a single point in time, in addition toprojecting and planning for future changes. At large, research related tointegrated care in a community setting is far from a novel research idea,however, there have been few studies that focused solely on integrated care ina college setting. With that said, research indicates that the merger ofprimary and behavioral health services has been occurring for the past twodecades (“Considerations for Integration of Counseling and Health Services onCollege and University Campuses”, 2010).In 2006, the American College Health Association Board of Directors assembled atask force that sought to determine the challenges and benefits of integratingcollege health services. Members of the task force consisted of ACHA members,which drew from a variety of fields (e.
g. law, social work, nursing,psychology). Their project consisted of three distinct parts.
The first step oftheir study aimed to better understand the structure and organization ofprimary health and behavioral health services at universities across thecountry. The task force collectively defined centers that embodied integratedcare services and questioned directors of each university through individualinterviews. Defining centers that were deemed integratedor merged, proved to be challenging for the task force, due to theinconsistencies in definitions across various models.
In order to accuratelycapture institutions that were considered integrated, a self-assessment wasprovided to directors to schematically delineate institutions. Respondents wereasked to accurately describe their institution on the basis of fouradministrative models; administrative structure, clinical services, operationalprocesses, and fiscal elements. Of the 1,800 institutions that were asked toparticipate, only 359 completed surveys. In turn, only 92 institutions wereidentified as integrated centers (“Considerations for Integration of Counselingand Health Services on College and University Campuses”, 2010). Smaller universities (e.g.
undergraduate enrollmentsunder 5,000) were recognized as being more likely to utilize an integrated caremodel. For example, 43% of the integrated centers comprised of schools withless than 5,000 students, while larger schools (e.g. over 20,000) made up only10% of the integrated centers identified (“Considerations for Integration ofCounseling and Health Services on College and University Campuses”, 2010). Respondents indicated thattheir current administrative structure was implemented for over seven years(i.
e. 63%), while a vast majority (i.e. 96%) of centers reported no plans tochange administrative structure (“Considerations for Integration of Counselingand Health Services on College and University Campuses”, 2010).
