Texas Pilot Mental Health Program For People With I/DD Cut Hospitalization & Incarceration Rates

Results from a pilot program, the “Outpatient Biopsychosocial Approach for IDD Services (OBI)”, conducted by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), indicate that eighty-four percent of Texans with a dual diagnosis of intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD) and mental illness who received outpatient mental health services in 2021 avoided hospitalization and incarceration.
The pilot, which started in November 2020, expanded the I/DD crisis continuum of care to include mental health outpatient services. OBI is available to children and adults who have I/DD or who are presumed to have I/DD and have a co . . .