Behavioral Health agency receives award

The Ventura County Behavioral Health Department, a division of the Ventura County Health Care Agency, was selected to receive the inaugural Science and Service Award from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. They were honored specifically for the Integrated Dual Diagnosis Treatment program launched in 2005.

Nationwide there exists a gap between the need for substance abuse and mental health services and the availability of accessible treatment options. The administration developed a "Toolkit" to describe the components of an evidencedbased treatment program for individuals with cooccurring severe mental illness and substance abuse. The integrated program developed by Ventura County Behavioral Health received perfect scores on almost every component in the Toolkit as rated by evaluators from the California Institute of Mental Health (CIMH).

The program has resulted in positive outcomes, such as reduction in severity of psychiatric symptoms, abstinence from abusive substances and successful completion of clientcentered treatment plan options.

"This is significant because it demonstrates the Behavioral Health Department's commitment to quality, to providing treatment that has data behind it, treatment that we know is effective for our clients," said Behavioral Health director Meloney Roy. "It's also testimony of our staff's dedication- their commitment to excellence."