Current State of Behavioral Heath In Philadephia

As part of the evaluation of Philadelphia Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), a public education program teaching the skills needed to identify, understand, and respond to signs of behavioral health challenges or crises, the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health tracks available city-wide behavioral health indicators over time. In partnership with the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) we have identified indicators that provide information about behavioral health in the city as a whole, among specific subpopulations, and/or in different neighborhoods; have the potential to demonstrate change over time (especially in response to population-based interventions like MHFA); and are feasible to collect on a regular and ongoing basis.

This brief report provides highlights from eleven behavioral health indicators from seven different sources. Data for this report are the most recent available, mostly from 2015 or 2016. In this report we divided our findings into two categories reflecting behavioral health conditions/symptoms first, followed by information on service utilization and provision.