Behavioral Health Risk Factors, Services, and Treatment Outcomes – Several projects examine the prevalence of mental illness and substance abuse, associated risk factors, access to behavioral health services, and the impact of behavioral health treatment on outcomes for youth and adults. Outcomes examined include health and social service costs, employment, mortality, homelessness, and criminal legal involvement.
Child Well-Being – Risk and protective factors for children and youth enrolled in Medicaid who may have development disabilities, child welfare or other system involvement are identified, and community and family risk factors and associated outcomes are examined.
Community Outcomes and Risk Evaluation (CORE) – A comprehensive collection of social indicators relevant to a broad range of problem behaviors among adolescents and adults, such as substance abuse among youth. The CORE data are used for prevention planning, needs assessment, policy and program evaluation, predictive modeling, and related studies to support effective and equitable delivery of social and health services across communities. In addition to the online collection of standard reports at the school district, locale, county, and state levels, custom data sets, reports and analysis have been developed.
Criminal Legal Involvement – Using integrated court, law enforcement, and jail data, RDA examines the relationships between health and social service needs and criminal legal involvement in numerous studies focusing on youth and adults. Outcomes associated with criminal legal interventions and behavioral health treatment are examined; programs for individuals with behavioral health needs who are involved with the criminal legal system are also evaluated.
Geographical Analysis - Projects encompass county-level to local and hyper local analysis, maps, and other geospatial information. Specific topics and measures include community and neighborhood-level behavioral and other risk factors, models of geographic access to social and health services, residential mobility of individuals and families enrolled in Medicaid, urban-rural typologies, and statistical analysis of geographical trends. The analyses are carried out at the most geographically detailed level possible, enabling targeted, community-specific approach to prevention, intervention, and other services.
Health Care – Work in this area include ongoing development of health care quality metrics, along with studies of medical risk, health care costs, and other outcomes. Programs are evaluated and policy alternatives are explored. Some studies are based on integrated Medicare and Medicaid data for persons “dually eligible.” The impact of federal policy changes on state programs is a recurring theme.
Homelessness and Housing – Studies by RDA examine the prevalence of homelessness and housing instability among adults and system involved youth; the impact of interventions to mitigate homelessness; and the impact of housing stability on employment, criminal legal involvement, behavioral and physical health, and other outcomes. Client living situations and address information from a variety of data systems across multiple agencies are used by RDA to create measures of homelessness and housing stability over time.
Long-term Care and Developmental Disabilities – Program outcomes and costs associated with care for the elderly and persons with disabilities with long-term care needs, as well as persons with developmental disabilities are explored. Transitions between different types of facilities and alternative models of institutional and residential care are evaluated, including costs and health outcomes.
Predictive Modeling – RDA maintains the PRISM web application which features state-of-the-art predictive modeling tools and health service data integration to support care management for high-risk Medicaid clients. PRISM currently supports more than 1,300 authorized users, including those with Medicaid health plans, health home leads and care coordination organizations, Behavioral Health Administrative Service Organizations, Area Agencies on Aging, Home and Community Services, Department of Health Children with Special Health Care Needs, Developmental Disabilities Administration Medically Intensive Children and HCA and DSHS staff performing care management or program management functions.
Self-sufficiency, Welfare and Employment – RDA tracks TANF and Basic Food services and conducts studies of the impact of new programs and interventions on employment, service use, and health outcomes for clients of the Economic Services Administration.
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). This project developed and maintains the capability for DSHS to produce required federal reports and respond to produce analytics to support policy and programming decision making.
The Opioid Crisis – In collaboration with the Healthcare Authority, the Department of Corrections and other agencies, RDA monitors and evaluates a variety of federal- and state-funded efforts to treat opioid addiction and to reduce the number of opioid-related deaths and hospitalizations in Washington State.
WA Pathways to Employment - Helping Washingtonians with a disability make informed decisions about going to work. Washington Pathways to Employment (P2E) Project is a customer centered public use website and supports databases to assist people with disabilities who are between the ages of 16 and 64 with access to work resources. The website promotes greater independence, productive and fulfilling lives by enhancing the ability for consumers with disabilities, their families and assisting providers.
WA Pathways to Housing – A one-stop resource to help you navigate the world of housing. WA Pathways to Housing (P2H) Project is a customer centered public use website and supporting databases to assist people who are in need of housing.