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Pennsylvania Department of Human Services

Challenge

Pennsylvania Department of Human Services as a result of a legal settlement were required to improve the transfer and treatment of individuals in state psychiatric hospitals.

Solution

IdeaCrew delivered a Competency Evaluation and Treatment Guide that significantly reduced transfer and treatment of individuals including criminal defendants in county prisons restoring them to competency.

Criminal defendants in Pennsylvania routinely wait months, sometimes years, in county prisons before being transferred to state psychiatric hospitals for treatment to restore them to competency. That was the lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (PA).

In 2018, PA Department of Human Services contracted with IdeaCrew to create an operational improvement plan to implement recommendations to comply with terms of an agreement with ACLU regarding the treatment of individuals in the state psychiatric hospitals within the commonwealth. IdeaCrew delivered the plan in two phases within 3 months focusing on three aspects of treatment for those patients who were sent to the state hospitals for competency to stand trial evaluation and/or for treatment to restore competency.

What We Did

Results

Ultimately, the IdeaCrew team created a Competency Evaluation and Treatment Guide that is widely circulated throughout the Commonwealth for use locally and in the state hospitals. Our work with the commonwealth resulted in wait times being significantly reduced from days up to only a few weeks for criminal defendants in county prisons being transferred to state psychiatric hospitals for treatment to restore them to competency.

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