Santa Clara County Selects Telecare Corporation for Innovative “Pay for Success” Project
County residents experiencing acute mental illness will receive intensive community-based treatment and related services
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIF. Today, the County Board of Supervisors approved the selection of Telecare Corporation as the service provider for a Pay for Success project to improve stability and wellness of some of the County’s most severely mentally ill individuals through intensive outpatient treatment, case management, and supportive services.
“Improving the stability and wellness of members of our community who suffer from acute mental illness is a high priority for the County,” said President Dave Cortese, County of Santa Clara. “We are hopeful that through this project, we’ll be able to offer more effective services in community-based settings.”
Pay for Success is a funding model under which governments pay for services only if and when a service provider achieves clearly defined, measurable results. Pay for Success leverages upfront funding for service providers from the private sector and philanthropic foundations and rigorously measures the effectiveness of programs over time.
“The Pay for Success model is ideal for this innovative mental health project,” said Gary Graves, Chief Operating Officer, County of Santa Clara. “We believe that with Telecare’s help, we can improve the care offered to some of our neediest clients, while also producing savings for the County.”
The project will serve individuals who have frequent or extended stays in the County’s psychiatric emergency and inpatient facilities and in other institutional settings, and will ensure these individuals are stabilized in less restrictive, community-based environments.
The project is designed to improve overall wellness and reduce utilization of costly emergency and inpatient mental health services for County residents suffering from severe mentally illness.
“Telecare's purpose, in every one of our programs, is to help people with serious mental illness to feel stronger, better, healthier, and more hopeful, not only with their mental illness, but in their lives,” said Faith Richie, Senior Vice President of Development at Telecare. "The Pay for Success model is particularly exciting because it brings an entirely new approach to collaboration to mental health care. It’s an investment in innovation whose primary goal is to make a measurable impact in the lives of Santa Clara residents. We are honored to be part of this process."
The County and Telecare will now begin a multi-month project development process to finalize the parameters of the project, including identification of target outcomes for the services to be provided to individuals experiencing episodes of acute mental illness, development of an evaluation plan, and the engagement of private investors.
Telecare Corporation has been providing community-based, wrap-around services for individuals with serious mental illness in the Bay Area and in California since 1994. Telecare currently operates more than 30 Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Full Service Partnership (FSP) programs in California that have the capacity to serve over 4,200 individuals each year. Telecare is one of the nation’s most experienced providers of adult community behavioral health services, specializing in serving individuals with serious mental illnesses and complex needs. Headquartered in Alameda County, Telecare has a significant Bay Area presence that will enhance its ability to provide services in Santa Clara County.
This is the County of Santa Clara’s second Pay for Success project. On August 14, 2015, the County announced the launch of Project Welcome Home,[1] which aims to improve quality of life and stability of chronically homeless individuals through permanent supportive housing and other supportive services.
The County of Santa Clara’s efforts to investigate and pursue Pay for Success initiatives have been led by Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating America’s transition to a performance-driven social sector. These efforts were initiated through a grant from The Health Trust and Step Up Silicon Valley, a project of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. The Sobrato Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation have also provided critical philanthropic support.
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[1] www.sccgov.org/projectwelcomehome
Media Contact: Gwendolyn Mitchell, Office of Public Affairs (408) 299-5119.
Posted: August 25, 2015