This project continues a longitudinal study of the effectiveness of the Oregon Partners Project (OPP), as it evolves from a demonstration project to part of a larger capitated managed mental health care system for Medicaid eligible children. The project will: (1) collect service fit, service coordination and child and family outcome data every six months from 260 children and families currently enrolled in the study over a three and one-half year time span (the span covering the implementation of the capitated system and the beginning of the Oregon Health Plan; (2) test the effectiveness of the OPP intervention compared with usual care under changing systems conditions and analyze the effect of the withdrawal of intensive case management services on service fit, service coordination and child and family outcomes; (3) measure the activities of the OPP case managers over time to see if the nature of their work changes as a result of the systems changes and the possible relationship of such shifts to client outcome; (4) collect and analyze cost and service use data for study subjects to ascertain whether the withdrawal of RWJ funds or introduction of capitation funding results in significant differences in either service utilization or cost; (5) measure the pattern of usage of flexible funds over time to evaluate whether the introduction of capitation results in funding flexibility similar to the OPP model and whether the addition of intensive case management results in the greater use of flexible funds and non-traditional services; and (6) study the implementation of CASSP Principles under managed care and rapid service systems change.
