To ensure that quality mental health care is available in communities to all Ohioans, the Department leads and participates in a number of statewide initiatives.

Coping With Tragedy - All Hazards Preparedness
To address the behavioral consequences of acts of terrorism or disaster, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and its collaborative partners are developing plans and strategies to anticipate and meet Ohio's behavioral health care needs. A number of materials are available to assist Ohioans in understanding the behavioral health effects that children, youth, adults, the elderly, first responders and emergency workers might experience during and after a traumatic event.

Consumer Outcomes
The Ohio Mental Health Consumer Outcomes System is a statewide approach to measuring consumer outcomes in Ohio's publicly-supported mental health system. A set of surveys measures how consumers are faring over time in the domains of symptom distress, functioning, quality of life, and safety and health.

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
ACT is a nationally recognized, evidence-based practice that addresses symptom management and everyday problems of persons with severe mental illness who are not well engaged in traditional services. It includes a multidisciplinary team approach, crisis response and assertive outreach.

Intensive Home Based Treatment (IHBT)
IHBT is an intensive service for children and youth to live and function successfully in his or her home, school and the community. It is intended to prevent or provide transition from out-of-home placement.

Consumer and Family Partnership Team
The Ohio Department of Mental Health’s Consumer and Family Partnership Team (CFPT) was designed to increase and strengthen consumer and family representation on ODMH committees and workgroups. Team membership includes consumers, family members and ODMH representatives.

Behavioral Health Operations Committee
The purpose of the Behavioral Health Operations committee is to resolve operational issues within the behavioral health system in Ohio that have statewide implications.

Mental Health and School Success
Research is fast accumulating on the urgency of removing barriers to learning and on strategies that bring families, schools and mental health professionals together to improve behavioral and academic outcomes for children and youth. Ohio has been recognized nationally as a leader in building and expanding collaboration across education, mental health and family-serving organizations in developing a shared agenda for children's mental health and school success.

SOQIC
Solutions for Ohio’s Quality Improvement and Compliance (SOQIC) is a statewide collaborative initiative within the mental health system dedicated to improving quality, reducing costs, and ensuring compliance with federal and state requirements. The SOQIC forms are an integrated documentation system that, when used with good clinical practice, will be fully compliant with ODMH and ODADAS rules, payer requirements (Medicaid/Medicare), and accreditation standards (JCAHO, CARF and COA).

Suicide Prevention
In Ohio, suicide is the ninth leading cause of death - the third among young adults. The Ohio Department of Mental Health is collaborating with other state and local agencies, organizations and individuals to save lives. Local suicide prevention coalitions have been formed in many counties and a number of initiatives are currently underway to raise awareness, eliminate stigma, promote suicide prevention as a public health issue, and to increase help-seeking behavior.