Service costs and mental health self-direction: Findings from consumer recovery investment fund self-directed care.

Mental health self-direction, also known as The study involved Medicaid claims data for 45 self-directing participants over a 3-year period. Bivariate statistics were computed to identify meaningful pre-post differences in service utilization and standardized monthly costs. Median standardized monthly mental health clinical outpatient costs were significantly lower after self-direction participation compared to before. Participants spent a mean of $182 per month in Freedom Funds to purchase a range of nonclinical goods and services to work toward recovery goals. Total service costs-including Freedom Funds used during self-direction-did not differ significantly before and after program participation. Findings from this modest pre-post examination of self-direction suggest that mental health self-direction can result in more person-driven, individualized services without increasing costs. More research is needed to examine the cost-effectiveness of self-direction and to understand how program design and implementation factors influence the relationship between self-direction and service costs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).