In a local mental-health arena where separating facts from impassioned opinions is a constant challenge, Forsyth Futures wants to use data to spur more collaboration and improve quality of care.
Doris Paez, an associate director with Forsyth Futures, is conducting interviews with officials with at least 19 groups representing the county government, school system and other agencies, local and state advocacy groups, for-profit and nonprofit service providers, managing entities and health-care systems.
The nonprofit group expects to release the study on April 21.
"We want to bring together all the parties into the same sandbox and learn about their objectives and how they align or don't align with others," Paez said. "We're trying to get answers for the questions in the community, and we're looking for the gaps in the system."
Paez said she is trying to find "every community report that has been written" regarding local mental-health issues. She said that "everyone will have equal data access" when it becomes available.
Part of the challenge is that many state attempts at reform -- and many local responses to reform -- have led instead to confusion and too many moving parts and targets.
For example, it is difficult to draw a benchmark comparison of how well CenterPoint Human Services, the local management entity, is performing because of its mix of four rural and urban counties -- Davie, Forsyth, Rockingham and Stokes.
By comparison, Durham, Guilford, Mecklenburg and Wake counties each have local-management entities that focus solely on their county.
Forsyth Futures' profile on the subject was raised in January with the release of its 2009 report.
The group found that just 38 percent of children and 42 percent of adults with mental-health conditions received mental-health care during the last quarter of fiscal year 2008-09, which ended June 30, through Medicaid and state-funded services.
It also reported that local providers overseen by CenterPoint served 8 percent more residents in fiscal year 2008-09 than the previous fiscal year.
The study also found that during the 2008-09 academic year, 1,565 psychological evaluations and 1,105 screenings of students were completed by the psychological-services department of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.
Paez is using what she calls an "initiascape" approach, which she defines as a method for documenting and depicting how local groups are trying to improve mental-health care. Forsyth Futures has similar initiatives regarding area kindergarten readiness, adult literacy and work force skills, and health coverage.
"The mental-health initiascape that Doris is working on is our contribution to the community conversation that helps to identify who is working in this area and what everybody's specific piece of the work is," said Jean Irvin, the executive director of Forsyth Futures.
Paez said she believes Forsyth Futures can play a role in deriving relevant comparison data on CenterPoint and other local mental-health agencies, as well as "digging deeper" into the data that those agencies provide.
Betty Taylor, the director of CenterPoint, serves on Forsyth Futures' board but is not a member of its executive committee.
Local advocates said they are encouraged that Forsyth Futures has taken on the study, said Laurie Coker, a board member of several local mental-health advocacy groups.
"Data previously used from studies by the local mental-health association and an outside consultant was never valued by the CenterPoint board," Coker said. "We will trust that Forsyth Futures will have the community's best interest at heart with this report."
rcraver@wsjournal.com
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