Brandywine Counseling Selected to Take Part in Nationwide Initiative to Improve Addiction Treatment Services

Brandywine Counseling, Inc. (BCI) has been awarded a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through its Paths to Recovery national initiative, which is designed to improve the process of care in substance abuse treatment programs.

Paths to Recovery seeks to employ process improvement techniques to help treatment providers serve more clients, with better service, using existing personnel and financial resources. The goal is to remove barriers to treatment by reducing duplications of work, eliminating unnecessary steps, and increasing the chances that systems work right the first time. BCI is one of 10 agencies selected nationwide out of over 300 applicants.

As part of the application process, BCI shortened the wait for individuals seeking treatment from four weeks to two by initiating a phone pre-screening process. Such barriers to treatment were identified by having an employee pose as a patient attempting to access treatment. Further improvement efforts will be initiated by a Change Committee composed of BCI line staff, supervisors, a patient, and a family member. As a grant recipient, BCI will now receive assistance from a panel of experts and be part of a nationwide learning community whose work together has the potential to inform national policymakers, demonstrate that addiction treatment services are a vital component of the health care delivery system, and guide other addiction treatment organizations wanting to achieve greater performance.

Brandywine Counseling, Inc. is a non-profit, outpatient substance abuse treatment agency that provides counseling and related assistance to addicted persons and their families. BCI's patient population currently stands at 1675, ranges from age 18 to over 65, and includes pregnant women, minorities, individuals with HIV/AIDS, dual diagnosis, and the persistently and severely ill. BCI currently has seven sites statewide in Delaware. For more information, please visit our web site, www.brandywinecounseling.org, or call Sally Allshouse, Executive Director at 302-472-0381.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to quality health care at reasonable cost; to improve the quality of care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs.