Statement of Need and Recommendations

Recommendation 3:
Strengthen and expand academic partnerships  

Through the process of the ASH Redesign, the partnership between Dell Medical School and ASH (HHSC) has strengthened. In each phase of the Redesign there has been an emphasis from stakeholders to increase the academic partnership at ASH. There are several next steps to build from prior collaboration. 

ASH & Dell Medical School Planning 

As discussed at the beginning of the statement and needs section of this report, a competitive salary is a high priority to maintain the current workforce and fill vacancies. Increased academic involvement in ASH operations might facilitate achieving this priority. In order to create the next collaboration toward that end, leaders from ASH and Dell Med School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences need to define their next-stage partnership. Report Phase II of the ASH Redesign highlighted the efforts of New York and Ohio’s academic partnerships that increased their qualified psychiatrists in the public mental health system. Previous discussions at ASH have ranged from resident rotation increases to Dell Med managing a unit at ASH, to the potential of Dell Med managing the operations of ASH (the original legislative request in 2018). The goal of each partner is similar – build a workforce to increase care capacity and improve quality and efficiency of care provided at ASH. Therefore, a partnership work group will meet throughout the remainder of 2022 and early 2023 to establish a plan to expand their partnership with an eye toward implementing the plan with the new ASH opening. 

Public Mental Health Initiatives 

As a local academic program near ASH, the work group Academic and Area Experts focused on ways to enhance the public mental health programs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Dell Medical School. More can be found in Appendix 5, and a summary of the recommendations follow. 

1. Establish community and academic partnerships to bolster development of a public mental health workforce: 

   • Increase access to training by linking community colleges and health care professional training programs. 

   • Expand training in psychiatric hospitals, community outpatient mental health care, school settings, and other mental health programs. 
     

2. Establish a Public Psychiatry Program within the Dell Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences: 

   • Develop a program at Dell Medical School that focuses on public mental health care to train future psychiatrists that will work at ASH and LMHAs. 

   • Establish training for medical students, residents and fellows, identify training sites, and augment clinical faculty with expertise to support the program. 

   • Collaborate with public mental health faculty and community providers to create a multi-disciplinary learning and service delivery structure and public psychiatry curriculum. 
     

3. Establish the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Mental Health Redesign: 

   • Create a Mental Health Redesign Center to build on the work to date from ASH Redesign. 

   • The Center can continue to work on the continuum of care, furthering an efficient system for the new ASH and the community mental health care system. 

   • The Center will continue to work with established stakeholders and partners and expand collaboration throughout the continuum of care. 

Academic partners have been a recurring recommendation throughout the work on the state hospitals. Dell Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will continue to enhance their program to focus on public mental health care and expand their partnerships in the continuum of care to increase opportunities for trainees. Planning the desired partnership between UT and ASH is a starting point for furthering recommendations from the ASH Redesign. With both organizations working together and expanding partnerships, more educational opportunities in a public health setting will be available to enhance future workforce’s knowledge of the public mental health need.