Who We Are
The DAETA Team is a multidisciplinary group of clinicians, researchers, managers, peers, and individuals with lived experience. Uniting the varied perspectives of our team is the shared vision in the importance of using data to improve behavioral health care for youth and families. Using a collaborative approach, our team helps to connect the experiences of those who provide services and the youth and families who utilize them. We also coalesce important data to inform the legislature, funders, and those who make decisions about behavioral health services in our state.
Our team fosters data-driven decision-making to:
- Improve patient experience and quality of care
- Provide training and workforce development to clinical and peer providers
- Strengthen coordination and communication across the system of care
- Advocate for equity in referral practices, payment structures, and access to care
The DAETA team is funded by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to monitor and evaluate multiple projects. These projects include Intensive In-Home Behavioral Health Treatment (IIBHT), Wraparound, Mobile Crisis Intervention Services (MCIS) and Stabilization Services (SS), which are delivered in community settings throughout the state. We also track referrals to psychiatric residential treatment facilities (PRTF) to better understand utilization and need for these facilities in Oregon.
The DAETA Team believes that strengthening the behavioral health system for youth and families requires a data-driven approach. Data can provide answers to important questions including:
- What services are being provided and to whom?
- How do youth and families who use these services do over time? Do the services help them do better in ways that matter to them?
- What is the unmet need for services?
- Are services being provided equitably to all who need them?
Our team also believes that answering these questions requires collecting data from different perspectives, including:
- Youth and families
- Clinical providers
- Peer services providers
- Program-level and state-level administrators
Data can be used to help identify needs and make targeted improvements within the behavioral health system. Data can be used in the following ways:
- By clinicians to monitor progress and guide treatment planning
- By peer services providers to strengthen their practices
- By local and county level program administrators to make strategic program improvements
- By program and state-level administrators to demonstrate value of services and advocate for continued funding and expansion
- By county and state leaders to inform quality improvement efforts
- By state and national leaders to improve service delivery models
- By researchers to better understand important areas within behavioral health
- By translational researchers to contribute to improved clinical care
The DAETA Team uses data to improve understanding of children's mental health services and to drive system improvements in Oregon, by:
- Generating quarterly and annual reports that summarize and interpret patient and program data
- Monitoring data and conducting statistical analyses to identify important trends
- Reporting on program strengths
- Making recommendations for improvements to the Oregon Health Authority
- Presenting to community programs and advocacy groups
- Contributing to research about youth behavioral health and service delivery
- Including family and caregiver needs in services that are provided to children and youth
In 2021, the US Surgeon General's Advisory stated, "Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health challenges were the leading cause of disability and poor life outcomes in young people, with up to 1 in 5 children ages 3 to 17 in the US with a reported mental, emotional, developmental, or behavioral disorder. In 2016, of the 7.7 million children with treatable mental health disorder, about half did not receive adequate treatment.”
In Oregon, this crisis is exacerbated by systems constraints which impact the delivery and availability of care. Our team strives to use data to highlight the needs within the Oregon youth behavioral health system, and to drive systems to help Oregon develop a true continuum of care. Oregon needs to approach children's behavioral health care with a sense of urgency.