Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year!
It’s been another challenging trip around the sun for those of us working to advance a data-driven public mental health system. According to Mental Health America’s latest reports, there is only one mental healthcare provider for every 340 people in the U.S. This apparent staffing crisis for mental health is especially troubling, as 5% of adults and 13% of youth have reported serious thoughts of suicide, while 18% of adults and 9% of youth have reported substance use disorder in the 2024 report. Healthcare providers are being asked to do more as resources diminish across the board.
As the Executive Director of Community Data Roundtable (CDR), I have been honored to continue working with such dedicated public health professionals. Across our contracts, I am struck by the determination and fortitude shown by those of us continuing to work in public health. From frontline workers caring for children with special needs, to industrious administrators supporting quality care, to public managed care professionals moving nimbly to keep organizations solvent, I am in awe of our behavioral health system’s resilience against all obstacles.
CDR is also proud of the humble role we play in the transformation of behavioral healthcare. We participate in many projects that address barriers to mental healthcare, and provide children, families, and adult consumers with high-quality measured services in a timely manner. CDR supports the behavioral health field by providing the data that communities need to ensure mental healthcare services are improving consumers’ lives.
One of CDR’s most enduring projects is to make behavioral health outcomes transparent to the public. Our public-facing ‘Child Services Outcomes’ dashboards for Central PA have been consistently published for the past 10 years, in an effort to increase awareness of community based behavioral health service providers’ impact (which includes ABA services). For the past few years, CDR’s public dashboards have indicated a rise in both severity and need within locally served PA counties. But they have also shown positive improvement for many children who are receiving care. With a constant eye on their impact, Pennsylvania stakeholders continue to steer a successful child mental health system.
In the upcoming year, CDR is positioned to make continued improvements. First, we are changing the name of our web application (‘The DataPool’) to the Community Data Roundtable “CANSA App.” Our reasoning for this name change is simple: over the past 10 years, CDR has developed and refined what we believe to be the best electronic version of the “Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths” (CANS) and “Adults Needs and Strengths Assessment” (ANSA). When communities need to implement major changes to their mental health systems, they reach for CANS or ANSA. Simultaneously, those communities should use the CANSA App to power their implementation. The CANSA App has an intuitive and simple interface, multiple reports for consumers, clinicians, and administrators, and a strong support team; the CDR CANSA App is the best solution for CANS & ANSA automation.
Data insights are more important than ever for healthcare success. The behavioral healthcare community must be precise when addressing disparities in need, especially with limited funding available. CDR’s partners are currently utilizing the CANSA App to identify populations, stratify need, and optimize care for all when it matters most. CDR also offers analytic services to help large mental health systems analyze claims, authorization, and assessment data to plan and use resources more efficiently. By bringing communities together through data, we lead with outcomes that matter. Thank you for being a part of our journey!
Dan Warner, Ph.D, MSCP (Executive Director, Community Data Roundtable)