Reduced Psychiatric Hospitalizations and Treatment Goal Attainment: Results From the Dual Diagnosis Treatment Team

BACKGROUND: Mental health conditions are prevalent among those with intellectual disabilities, and their co-occurrence can increase healthcare use and spending, including psychiatric hospitalizations, while reducing quality of life and compromising community placement. This paper presents results from the Dual Diagnosis Treatment Team (DDTT), a multidisciplinary treatment programme for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities with a co-occurring mental health diagnosis. DDTT is designed to reduce hospitalizations by connecting clients with services and allowing participants to maintain community placement. METHOD: After describing the programme, the study considers changes in 12-month hospitalization rates and treatment goal attainment with the programme's administrative data from Pennsylvania using hierarchical Poisson and Bernoulli observational models, respectively. RESULTS: The results show programme admission predicts a decrease in 12-month hospitalization rates of nearly 40% (IRR = 0.62, p < 0.001) following programme admission, with predicted decreases for those with psychotic disorders approaching 60% (IRR = 0.63, p < 0.05). Nearly 70% of clients attained treatment goals, and the model results suggest treatment goal attainment is most likely among older individuals and those with mild, moderate and unspecified intellectual disability. CONCLUSION: Admission to DDTT predicts reduced psychiatric hospitalizations with larger reductions predicted for vulnerable subpopulations; the results for treatment goal attainment show that the majority of programme participants are stabilized in the community. Further research is required to decompose variation due to programme components and understand temporal patterns in hospitalization.