Defining Quality Standards for Intensive Home Based Treatment Programs for Youth With SED

Intensive Home Based Treatment (IHBT) is a critical component of a full array of community-based behavioral health care for youth with serious emotional disorders (SED) and their families.  With more than $100 million spent annually on these services, the time has come to develop a well-vetted, research-based set of quality standards for IHBT.  The above-titled manuscript reports on a rigorous study that produced 32 program standards and 43 practice standards with the potential to inform the development of state regulations, provider contracts, memoranda of agreement, and training and workforce development initiatives.  Translation of the quality standards into measurement strategies would support continuous quality improvement across multiple levels as well as use in research on IHBT.