{"id":4344,"date":"2023-05-05T09:44:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T14:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluralhealthcare.com\/?p=4344"},"modified":"2024-03-29T15:35:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T20:35:46","slug":"carf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pluralhealthcare.com\/carf\/","title":{"rendered":"Plural Healthcare Is CARF Accredited"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are proud to announce that Plural Healthcare is CARF accredited. <\/em>CARF<\/a> is an independent nonprofit that sets quality standards for mental health organizations. And our intensive outpatient program has received the highest level of CARF certification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What does this mean for you<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The short version is that\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can be even more confident that you (or your loved ones) will receive the best care possible here at Plural Healthcare.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n But that\u2019s just the start. In this post, we\u2019ll walk through why CARF matters to you\u2026 what being accredited really means\u2026 and how it impacts the care you\u2019ll receive in our IOP programs.<\/p>\n\n\n CARF International is an independent, nonprofit organization that\u2019s been around since 1966. They set (and verify) quality standards for a wide range of human services \u2013 such as mental healthcare, behavioral health treatment, and community programs. CARF currently accredits<\/a> more than 65,000 programs and services. And more than 15 million people receive care each year from CARF accredited providers.<\/p>\n\n\n This is important because not all mental health providers are created equal. As with anything, you can find a wide range in terms of quality. Many providers are excellent. But some are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recent investigations by The New York Times<\/a>, Wall Street Journal<\/a>, and The Independent<\/a> exposed some unaccredited counseling programs for straight-up \u201cexploiting\u201d the mentally ill. Companies were charging huge fees while their so-called treatment only \u201cexacerbated people\u2019s issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully, genuine mental help is out there. And the majority of organizations do work hard to provide quality care to their clients. But you need to do your research<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n When seeking help for depression, anxiety, trauma, PTSD, or other serious challenges\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look for providers that have good reviews, clearly explain their treatment process, hire qualified staff<\/a>, and are open about their financial costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Check for professional licenses such as LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor) or LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) that show you\u2019re working with a qualified clinician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And for more intensive treatment options such as IOP<\/a>, see if the organization has received the seal of approval from a 3rd-party accreditor like CARF. CARF thoroughly audits all mental health providers they certify and helps guarantee a high standard of care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, there are other recognized accreditation bodies<\/a> besides CARF (like Joint Commission and COA). But we chose to work with CARF because\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n Just like us, CARF believes in a person-centered focus. That all people deserve dignity and respect. That clients should have a voice in their own care and have control over their own treatment decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like us, CARF believes in aspiring to excellence. That we can always get better. That we should proactively work to improve every aspect of our care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And above all\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n CARF, like us, believes these values are not abstract ideals. They are to be expressed through tangible policies, plans, and ACTION.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Actions like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more we looked into CARF, the more we could see they were a good fit for us. And we knew their standards would help us further improve and refine our IOP. In other words\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working with CARF would be more than just getting a \u201cseal of approval.\u201d CARF would also be a valuable, long-term partner<\/em><\/strong> in our mission.<\/p>\n\n\n Achieving accreditation is not easy. CARF reviews every program with detailed audits, site visits, and by collecting information from staff, clients, and community stakeholders. Preparing for the application process alone takes months of work. And CARF performs ongoing audits to ensure the organization maintains quality over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a lot of individual items CARF looks for when evaluating a program. But they can be roughly classified under 3 major requirements for CARF accreditation:<\/p>\n\n\n Their job is to ensure nothing important get overlooked. And they want to see detailed documentation for, well, pretty much everything. (Or to be exact, there were 1437 specific items CARF evaluated us on.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n This doesn\u2019t just cover obvious things like how our treatment program works or how we run our IOP groups. Their requirements cover areas like risk management, staff and hiring, health and safety, financial sustainability, technology, protection of personal health information, and much, much more.<\/p>\n\n\n At Plural Healthcare, we have over 110 different policies and plans in place. That may sound like a lot. (And it is!) But this is your<\/em> mental health we\u2019re talking about. And our goal is to guarantee the absolute best care possible.<\/p>\n\n\n Anyone can put together some nice sounding documents. There are even boilerplate templates online that you can just copy and paste from. The real work is actually doing what you say you\u2019re doing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n CARF spends a lot of time evaluating this during the accreditation process. They review your meeting minutes, reports, clinical data, and more. They interview your staff and even some of your clients. They make sure you know your policies inside and out\u2026 and that you are following through on every one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, one of our policies is to have a weekly meeting with our treatment team. These meetings allow us to adjust our care and IOP curriculum in realtime. And they identify specific issues that need extra attention. In the meeting, the therapists and clinical director go through each client and discuss:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, everything that\u2019s supposed to happen for these weekly review meetings is documented in our official policies. But that wasn\u2019t enough for CARF. They also reviewed minutes from several of these meetings. And they spoke directly with our lead therapist and clinical director about how we manage our IOP treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n And this is only one example too. As part of the application process, CARF performed a complete, 3-day survey with us. Their surveyor interviewed our key staff (such as the CEO, Clinical Director, and Lead Therapist). And together, we walked through every aspect of our operations to show we were doing exactly what we said we would be doing.<\/p>\n\n\n No organization is 100% perfect. There are always ways to provide even better care, expand access to our programs, or to run operations more smoothly. That\u2019s why CARF wants to see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s one goal from our 2023 performance plan: We want to see a 30% improvement in our clients\u2019 clinical scores (from intake to discharge).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Clinical assessments are one way we track the effectiveness of our programs. We have each client take the PHQ-9<\/a> and GAD-7<\/a> quizzes on a weekly basis to get objective, numeric values for their depression and anxiety levels. If we see a steady decline in these values, that indicates progress in our clients\u2019 healing.<\/p>\n\n\n Results for 2023 are incomplete. But as you can see from the table below, our clients are seeing significant improvements in anxiety and depression levels. And we\u2019re on track to hit our performance goal based on Q1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who Is CARF? And Why Do They Matter?<\/h2>\n\n\n
How to Find Quality Mental Health Care<\/h3>\n\n\n
CARF\u2019s Values Align With the Values of Plural Healthcare<\/h3>\n\n\n
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The Accreditation Process: What Does It Take to Become CARF Accredited?<\/h2>\n\n\n
1. CARF Wants to See Plans and Policies for Every Aspect of Operations<\/h3>\n\n\n
2. CARF Wants to See Those Plans and Policies Are Followed<\/h3>\n\n\n
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3. CARF Wants to See Improvement and Growth<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Lighter lines indicate a small sample size.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n