STREAMWOOD, IL- Streamwood Behavioral Healthcare System (SBHS) and Loyola University will be presenting an innovative research study on March 7th at the 23rd annual Children’s Mental Health Research and Policy Conference in Tampa, Florida. The purpose of the conference, hosted by the Research and Training Center (RTC) for Children’s Mental Health, is to share what has proven successful in child-serving systems throughout the nation and provide a forum for constructive dialogue about key advancements in the field of children’s mental health.

“We are very excited about this significant opportunity to share our findings with national mental health leaders as well as international experts,” said CEO Cindy Meyer. “Our study presents a shift in the way inpatient hospitalization outcomes are viewed, and it will increase accountability of the service providers and improve clinical outcomes for patients.”

Currently, the success of inpatient hospitalization is viewed in child research literature by examining the length of stay and hospital readmission. These studies, however, fail to assess clinical improvements during hospitalizations and in-patient care. In addition, external factors such as a patient’s family life, school experience, and community involvement can affect outcome, both positive and negative, and give a false sense of success or failure to doctors, therapists, and other service providers.

“Clinical improvement during the episode of care is the main goal of hospitalization, while long-term treatment is the responsibility of the community within a system of care,” said Meyer. “Therefore, traditional measures of outcome are inappropriate as they do not measure patient’s functioning during their time in the hospital.”

As a result, SBHS and Loyola studied symptom acuity in 60 children in three inpatient units, monitoring the daily functioning of each by tracking symptom reduction during hospitalization. The results, among other things, indicated children with suicidal ideation and impulsivity at intake were associated with less favorable outcomes, while agitation at intake was associated with more positive outcomes.

The study comes as recent figures from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) stated the number of Americans under care for mental illnesses nearly doubled from 1996 to 2006. Among the numbers are the rising rates of mental and emotional problems among children and teenagers who are increasingly faced with depression, anxiety, conduct disorders, suicidal thinking, and other serious psychological/behavioral challenges.

“As mental health professionals, we must continue to improve our practices to better treat the rising number of children and adolescents needing help,” said Meyer. “We look forward to networking and collaborating with others at the research and policy conference to do just that.”

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