Effective January 1, 2006, the Joint Commission will establish new requirements that expand the current behavioral health care standards to include services that support a recovery-oriented philosophy and approach to care, treatment and services.
Joint Commission accredited community-based behavioral health care organizations proposed these specific standards to address a number of services frequently offered by organizations moving to a recovery philosophy. Feedback from the behavioral health care field supported these standards that will help their programs demonstrate alignment with the goals set forth in the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health's final report, Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America. The report established two principles for successfully transforming the mental health service delivery system in the United States:
- Services and treatment must be consumer and family-driven, geared to give consumers real and meaningful choices about treatment options and providers -- not oriented to the requirements of bureaucracies.
- Care must focus on increasing consumers' ability to successfully cope with life's challenges, on facilitating recovery, and on building resilience, not just on managing symptoms.
Although the definition and principles of recovery in mental health are still evolving, the Joint Commission determined that it would be timely to develop requirements to support the field as it transitions to this new model. This approach augments existing standards currently surveyed under the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Behavioral Health Care (CAMBHC).
In 2004, a Recovery-Oriented Services Task Force composed of 15 behavioral health care providers, researchers and public members was established to guide the development of standards and survey process-related work. Standards were drafted and a field review was conducted in February 2005.
The newly approved standards will be published in the 2006-2007 CAMBHC, available in the fall of 2005. The standards only apply to behavioral health care organizations that offer the following services:
- Case management/care coordination
- Community integration
- Employment services
Family support
- Peer support
- Vocational rehabilitation services
For more information, contact Mary Cesare-Murphy, Ph.D., executive director, Behavioral Health Care Accreditation Program, (630) 792-5790 or mcesaremurphy@jointcommission.org.