Although the Health Foundation does not fund clinical research, we do fund programs that work to optimize the delivery of services to the severely mentally ill. Through our strategy of Achieving Clinical Excellence, the Foundation supports programs that help delivery systems provide better services and demonstrate cost-effectiveness with successful clinical outcomes.

System Assessment
Agencies often work with system deficits that undo work done at earlier stages. For example, a patient might have been stabilized through hospitalization only to be thrown back into crisis because there was no transitional housing to prevent homelessness, which interferes greatly with further treatment. Mental health boards and provider agencies are encouraged to look at their entire system of care and assess how well they are meeting all of the needs of their clients and to look at programs in neighboring regions for possible avenues of collaboration. However, the financial and human resources needed to do this are often lacking.

Best Practices
An important step in developing clinical excellence is the use of "best practices" -- the models and standards that have been proven to work. Once agencies have discovered these proven practices, they may need help to develop the resources to support these practices and to train their direct care providers as well as adjunct providers in the educational, religious, and judicial communities.

Auxiliary Support
Many people have auxiliary roles in providing assistance to people with severe mental illnesses, and they can play important roles in stabilizing people with severe mental illnesses and sustaining them in the community. These auxiliary support people include ministers, educators, justice system personnel, family members, media, and policy makers.

Achieving Clinical Excellence
To assist agencies in obtaining clinical excellence, the Foundation will support activities that:

• Analyze, redesign, and strategically plan the care system
• Standardize data and set performance standards
• Increase access to treatment
• Address substance abuse issues of people with mental illnesses
• Reach out to the underserved
• Address cultural competency issues and develop culturally specific programming
• Develop consumer recovery approaches
• Collaborate with other systems (schools, judicial, primary care)
• Cooperate regionally to address capacity issues