What is this “IBHS” everyone is talking about?
Intensive Behavioral Health Services (IBHS) is a transition from Behavioral Health Rehabilitative Services (BHRS), or “wraparound” services. IBHS officially began January 17, 2021.
How is it different from BHRS?
From a parent’s perspective, there is not much difference from BHRS. You’ll have essentially the same staff but with different titles. For example, TSS is now called a BHT (Behavioral Health Technician), Mobile Therapist is still Mobile Therapist, and BSC is now simply “Behavioral Consultant”. A social skills group is now classified under “Group Services”. This staff provides essentially the same services as BHRS. Classifications include “Individual Services” that targets general behavioral health, and “ABA”, which is geared toward children who have more complex issues such as moderate to severe autism. The prescription is also written monthly as opposed to weekly. So, you might see a prescription that reads “Behavioral Consultant (BC-ABA) up to 15 hours per month…” or “Behavioral Health Technician (BHT-Individual Services) up to 30 hours per month in the home and community…”
What is the purpose of IBHS?
The primary goal has been to increase the ease with which a parent can procure these services for their child and to increase the extent to which staff can be located to provide the services. In that respect, there are fewer hoops to jump through to get and keep IBHS, and the BHT can have a high school diploma (as opposed to a Bachelor’s Degree) given the proper training.
How is IBHS different from BHRS for the Provider?
There are notable changes for the Provider including far more stringent regulations for training, supervision, and credentials, which is a good thing for parents and children in regards to the quality of service.
If you’re really bored and ambitious, here are the actual IBHS regs:
http://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pabull?file=/secure/pabulletin/data/vol49/49-42/1554b.html
Hope that helps to explain the basics of IBHS. We are available here at Community Psychiatric Centers to provide this valuable service, as well as our licensed outpatient mental health clinic, and medication management from Dr. Lowenstein.
Feel free to forward any questions to me at DrCarosso@aol.com.
