Service Utilization Before and After Self-Direction: A Quasi-experimental Difference-in-Differences Analysis of...

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Services Research
• Health Services Administration
• Psychiatric Rehabilitation

Background:

• Mental health self-direction allows individuals to manage their own budgets for recovery and wellness.
• Understanding the impact of self-direction on service utilization is crucial for service planning and delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the association between mental health self-direction and changes in service utilization.
• To compare service use patterns between self-directing participants and a matched comparison group.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental design using 2 years of administrative data.
• Involved 94 self-directing participants and 529 non-participants.
• Difference-in-differences analysis with regression models predicting changes in service utilization.

Main Results:

• Self-directing participants showed significantly greater increases in outpatient services compared to non-participants.
• Rehabilitation service utilization also increased more among self-directing individuals.
• No significant differences were found in residential or emergency service utilization between the groups.

Conclusions:

• Mental health self-direction is associated with increased use of outpatient and rehabilitation services.
• This model may facilitate access to community-based and rehabilitative supports.
• Self-direction does not appear to impact the utilization of residential or emergency services.