TY - BOOK ID - 143046050 TI - Improving Mental Health Care Systems in the United States: Policy Questions Arising from a Case Study of Sheppard Pratt AU - Breslau, Joshua AU - Eberhart, Nicole K. AU - Huilgol, Shreya S. AU - Mcbain, Ryan K. AU - Sobol, Danielle PY - 2023 PB - RAND Corporation DB - UniCat UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:143046050 AB - Sheppard Pratt is one of the oldest providers of mental health care in the United States, having first opened as an inpatient psychiatric hospital in suburban Baltimore in 1891. Beginning in the early 1990s, Sheppard Pratt transitioned into a community-based mental health specialty care system, combining its traditional inpatient services with an increasingly diverse array of community-based outpatient clinical, residential, and recovery-oriented services. Today, Sheppard Pratt operates a comprehensive continuum of care that is unique within the United States and comprises more than 160 programs at more than 380 sites across Maryland and West Virginia. To explore how Sheppard Pratt's experience can potentially inform national mental health policy, the authors interviewed senior staff at Sheppard Pratt to understand the distinctive characteristics of the organization, ways in which it addresses challenges that mental health policymakers face, and continuing challenges that it faces in reaching its own goals. ER -