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Self-Directed Care Implementation Manual: A Comprehensive Mental Health Program Guide

Self-Directed Care (SDC) is a new way of providing mental health services in which adults with psychiatric disabilities directly control the funds spent on their recovery. They create a person-centered recovery plan and a budget for the purchase of goods and services to achieve their life goals. Program staff help them hire providers and make purchases that lead to recovery. The Self-Directed Care Implementation Manual offers a step-by-step guide to introducing self-directed care in local community settings. It includes experience-based suggestions for developing broad-based support from multiple stakeholders, designing local programs, recruiting participants, training personnel, addressing financing issues, and establishing evaluation and quality assurance protocols. It details the structure, policies, and outcomes of the Texas Self Directed Care Program that has been rigorously evaluated and shown to produce superior outcomes at equivalent costs when compared to traditional care. The appendix contains sample forms from Texas’ and other states’ SDC programs, as well as reference and resource listings for self-directed care.


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