Reports include
1. Children Awaiting Resolution and Disposition Data (CARD)
Total Children by Fiscal Year Remaining on CARD.
The graph represents the number of youth who are awaiting discharge from a behavioral health acute hospital or diversionary (Community Based Acute Treatment (CBAT) or Intensive Community Based Acute Treatment (ICBAT)) level of care. The chart displays the numbers of youth who are awaiting discharge on the last day of each month of the fiscal year. The numbers for the fiscal year are updated as they become available. The data is also displayed on a graph with a line in a different color for each fiscal year.
2. Transitional Care Report
The Transitional Care Report provides a count of the number of youth covered by MBHP who are in a Transition Care Unit (TCU) as of the last day of the month. TCU's are designed for youth who are in the care or custody of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) who have been determined not to need residential care; for whom the expected placement setting will be home with parent(s)/caregiver(s), foster care or community-based group home, and who no longer meet medical necessity criteria for continued stay at an inpatient or Intensive Community-Based Acute Treatment or Community-Based Acute Treatment (ICBAT/CBAT) level of care. TCUs are provided in an environment that is less restrictive than inpatient and ICBAT/CBAT and more structured than partial hospitalization or outpatient treatment. Transitional Care Services are designed to facilitate transition to the youth's next placement setting through comprehensive transition planning and medically necessary behavioral health services.
3. Beds and Boarding Report
This chart outlines the number of youth involved with the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership (MBHP) who are awaiting inpatient hospital placement, and the number of available inpatient beds as of the last day of the month.
4. Point In Time Count Of Department of Mental Health (DMH) Residential, Therapeutic Foster Care, Inpatient And Intensive Residential Treatment Program Beds
This chart reflects:
1) the number of individual residential and therapeutic foster care beds purchased by DMH for individual clients, known as "slot purchase" placements. "Slot purchase" placements are used by each DMH area, but they are the only method for purchasing residential in the Southeast. The Southeast does not have any contracted residential or therapeutic foster care programs. The majority of the "slot purchase" placements reflected on this chart are funded through the Areas, however, in some instances, Central Office provides funding for these placements.
2) the number of DMH contracted beds. This includes community based residential and therapeutic foster care beds in each geographic area and continuing care inpatient and intensive residential treatment program beds which serve youth from all over the state. Of note, continuing care inpatient will always have 3 beds in reserve for forensically referred youth. This is because of the unpredictable nature of these referrals for which DMH must have an immediate available resource. An additional note about the number of vacant beds and number of children on waitlists: Children on waitlists may be waiting for a service with no current vacancies. For example there may be vacancies at programs serving adolescent boys, while the waitlist for that area is comprised of girls or latency age boys.
5. Department of Children and Families (DCF) Congregate Care Census
DCF purchases congregate care slots as needed from approved contracted providers. The providers in this chart are licensed and contracted to provide congregate care limited to specific ages, genders and medical / behavioral need characteristics. The contract does not specify a specific number of slots that DCF will use but rather allows DCF to purchase slots from the provider when DCF has a child to refer, the provider has an available opening, and the profile of the referred child matches the age, gender, medical and behavioral characteristics for which the program is licensed. It is important to note that even when a provider reports that they have an available slot, that slot would only be able to be used for a child matching the licensing characteristics of the program. This chart shows: The numbers of slots being used by DCF in congregate care programs with approved contracts; the numbers of slots within these programs that the programs report as available to be potentially purchased; the numbers of slots within these programs that the programs expect to be available to be purchased within the next four weeks; and the date that the census was last updated by the provider.
6. DCF Intensive Foster Care (IFC) Homes with No Placements
DCF purchases Intensive Foster Care (IFC) slots as needed from approved contracted providers. All of the providers included in this chart are licensed and contracted to provide IFC services and to license specific IFC homes. The homes themselves are often licensed to serve specific ages, genders and medical / behavioral need characteristics. The contract does not specify a specific number of slots that DCF will use but rather allows DCF to purchase slots from the provider when DCF has a child to refer, the provider has a home with an available opening, and the profile of the referred child matches the age, gender, medical and behavioral characteristics for which the home is licensed. Therefore it is important to note that even when a provider reports that they have a home available, that slot would only be able to be used for a child matching the licensing characteristics of the home.
IFC venders provide DCF with lists of all of the foster homes (and slots within these homes) that could be available - given the right match. These lists are used to create this "Homes with No Placements" report. The report does show homes that have available beds not in use that we could potentially access through our contract. What the report does not show is the reasons that the beds were not used, which might range from the foster parent being temporarily unavailable (sick or on vacation) to a "mismatch" between the profile of children referred on that particular day to the profile of children for whom the home was approved.