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Bluestone Releases Community Health Needs Assessment

A community health needs assessment (CHNA) recently released by Bluestone Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital, found some improvements in mental health indicators among the youth population as well as some concerning declines, including an increase in anxiety and depression among seventh through 12th graders in Cuyahoga, Summit and Huron counties.

Located in University Heights, Bluestone is a 12-bed psychiatric hospital designed to create cutting-edge clinical care and positive patient experiences for youth in crisis in the hospital’s 10-county primary service area in Northeast Ohio. Bluestone released its first CHNA to gauge the health status of its community and better leverage resources and investments to improve the mental health in the region.

The CHNA contains the report, which includes a summary of key findings and priority issues, and an implementation plan that outlines Bluestone’s goals and strategies to address these findings over the next three years. The data provides a closer look into the needs and issues facing adolescents today.

Report Findings

Additional findings in the report include an increase in the percentage of seventh through 12th graders seriously considering attempting suicide in Cuyahoga, Huron and Summit counties and an increase in those reporting they actually attempted suicide in Portage and Summit counties.

While a few counties saw a decrease, multiple counties saw an increase in marijuana use and alcohol consumption in that same age group.

According to the report, the child abuse and neglect rate per 1,000 is higher in Cuyahoga (9.3), Erie (7.0), Huron (7.4) and Medina (7.8) counties compared to the state (6.9), and Ohio youth with a mental health impairment experience four or more Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) at a higher percentage than peers without a mental health impairment.

Implementation Strategy Priorities

The following have been identified as the top priorities to be addressed through the implementation strategy:

• Access to mental health services: Address issues of medical clearance to access services at Bluestone, outreach to autism providers on available services, and community education/outreach on available services at Bluestone.
• Youth mental health: Intensive Outpatient Program groups with different specialties (substance abuse, attempted suicide, victim of rape, trauma).
• Access to inpatient care for the autism population.
• Workforce shortage: Develop internal strategies for employee retention, recruitment and job satisfaction.

Focusing on ways to fix the workforce shortage, the CHNA report also emphasizes a need to address burnout and turnover through a variety of means such as compensation and benefits, continuing education and professional development, and workload evaluations with an objective to hire and retain qualified staff to improve the health of the community.

Community Input

The steering committee for the study included 11 community leaders, representing a diverse cross-section of the region. Along with input from 17 key community stakeholders, the CHNA includes a variety of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods including extensive secondary data from local, regional, state and national sources. The committee identified four broad categories for the hospital to address: youth mental health (including substance use), access to mental health services, autism, and workforce shortages.

The CHNA included community input that expanded upon identified areas in need of improvement. This incorporated recommendations such as offering a greater availability of prevention services and intervention at lower levels of the treatment continuum to reduce the need for in-patient and residential treatment, and proper transition planning for youth leaving in-patient settings, which could increase the likelihood of successful reintegration into the community without readmission.

Read the full CHNA report, here.