Philadelphia Mental Health

With nearly 350 healthcare providers in Philadelphia, finding the appropriate mental health care used to be a challenge, especially for financially disadvantaged Philadelphia citizens. Although programs were diverse, they were separately managed by two agencies of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health — the Office of Mental Health and the Coordinating Office for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Programs (CODAAP). When private health management organizations entered the picture, Philadelphia citizens were lost in a maze of public and private bureaucracy, often pushed from one provider to another.

Two key events came together to change the face of Philadelphia mental health care. In 1986, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Program for Chronic Mental Illness endowed the Philadelphia Office of Mental Health with a national grant, which was used to explore options in creating a unified mental health care system. Then in 1990, the closing of the Philadelphia State Hospital precipitated the forming of a lobby, composed of both citizens and health care providers, who successfully convinced the commonwealth to allocate 60 million dollars from the closing to develop new mental health services in Philadelphia.

Finally, the city had the power to coordinate behavioral health care and social services for all citizens in need, regardless of their financial ability. In February 1997, Philadelphia launched Community Behavioral Health (CBH) to serve the city’s Medicaid recipients and began linking it with the new Behavioral Health System. Soon, Philadelphia’s system became a national model for managed behavioral health services.

Currently the CBH, the CODAAP and the Department of Mental Health work together to provide annual services to an average of 75,000 of the city’s eligible 1.4 million eligible residents. Available public mental health services include:

• Supplemental adult and child mental health treatment
• Crisis response services 
• Vocational, residential and psychiatric rehabilitation services 
• Targeted case management 
• Services for older adults, persons with HIV/AIDS, the deaf, forensic services, cross-cultural services, and services for women with dependent children.

Philadelphia is home to 30 health care facilities that offer treatment for mental health disorders, including some of the best hospitals in the nation. Among the most notable:

1. A Part of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Belmont Behavioral Health is known both regionally and nationally for its expertise and dedication in treating behavioral health, addiction and eating disorders. Treatment options include: 
   
   • Individual, couples, group and family psychotherapy
   • Substance abuse counseling
   • Support groups
   • Creative arts therapies
   • Self-help groups
   
   
2. For the ninth consecutive year, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia retains its prominent place as one of the nation's premier pediatric hospitals, ranking number 2, just behind the Children's Hospital of Boston.  Children’s provides inpatient emergency psychiatric care services as well as Child/adolescent services, consultation, outpatient care services, and support groups for families.
3. Part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Friends Behavioral Health System is ranked as the nation's 19th best hospital for psychiatry. Established by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1813, Friends Hospital was the first psychiatric hospital in the United States and has been innovative since the beginning, building its reputation on not only providing all with highly skilled mental health treatments but also treating all patients with dignity and compassion. 
4. The University of Pennsylvania opened America’s first school of medicine in 1765. Established in 1874 as the nation’s first teach hospital, The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is still a health care leader today, dominating a recent U.S. News survey of U.S. hospitals with top rankings in multiple categories. Overall, it ranked as the 10th best hospital in the United States, in the top 50 in 13 separate categories, notably fourteenth in psychiatric services. 
5. A member of the Jefferson Health System, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital specializes in comprehensive inpatient treatment for adult mental disorders through its Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior including those for mood disorders (depression, bi-polar illness), schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and severe anxiety adjustment disorders as well as other problems requiring inpatient psychiatric treatment. The hospital also provides outpatient mental health services for children, adolescents, and adults.

See Also:

Philadelphia Mental Health Clinics

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