1986
Dr. Claire Leonard at Primary Children's Medical Center (PCMC) headed up a treatment program sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Division of Services for People with Disabilities (DSPD), and Intermountain Healthcare, for people with developmental disabilities. This program was canceled after two years but was the beginning of collaborative clinical services for people with developmental disabilities in the state of Utah.
1988 - 1995
Dr. Jack Madsen at PCMC began looking at ways to meet the mental health needs of children with epilepsy. Dr. Madsen worked with Dr. Rich Ferre to provide mental health/behavioral treatment while treating epilepsy in the same place. Other clinicians became involved over time including Dr. Doug Gray (Psychiatrist) and Dr. David Nilsen (Neuropsychologist). This was the beginning of what became referred to as the Neurobehavior Clinic for and was situated at PCMC but eventually moved to Research Park at the University of Utah. Dr. Scott Stiefel entered this program as a resident in 1989 and became the director upon completing his Triple Board training (Adult and Child Psychiatry, and Pediatrics).
DSPD continued to look at mental health treatment for people with Developmental Disabilities/Mental Retardation (DDMR) and funded a program with mental health care provided by Dr. Chris Lang and Dr. Rick Zaharia. This program came to be known as the Neuropsychiatric Clinic for People with Disabilities and was situated at University of Utah Hospital. Dr. Stiefel also worked in this clinic from 1992 and eventually both clinics became located in Research Park with Dr. Stiefel as director. In the mid 1990s, Dr. Zaharia and Dr. Stiefel obtained increased funding from DSPD to expand clinical services in this program in terms of the number of patients served, the provision of outreach clinics, and resident training.
2000 - 2004
Dr. Stiefel and Dr. Dale Green approached Dr. Ed Clarke in the Department of Pediatrics to develop a business plan to enhance the Neurobehavior Clinic. The Department of Pediatrics and PCMC Foundation (Dr. Doug Nelson) offered financial support to sustain this program. During the same period, Dr. Stiefel was approached by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation the Utah Department of Health as part of the Medicaid Redesign Project to create a coordinated care program. The idea was to blend medical and mental health funding streams for people with developmental disabilities to be able to provide continuous clinical services to meet their complex medical and mental health needs. This program began and was named the UNI HOME Project. Josette Dorius was hired to develop and administer this program, with Dr. Stiefel as program director.
The clinic in Research Park now had three programs: Neuropsychiatric Clinic for People with Disabilities (funded by DSPD), Neurobehavior Clinic (funded by the Department of Pediatrics), and the UNI HOME Project (funded by Medicaid). The UNI HOME Project grew to 120 DSPD clients from the central region over the next two years.
2004 - Present
Due to the effectiveness of HOME in enhancing the well being of patients while remaining financially viable, Josette Dorius proposed to Medicaid that the HOME Project be expanded. Medicaid agreed to allow the ongoing growth of the project, and that the HOME Project would be considered by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a separate Medicaid Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), effective January 1, 2006. The clinic was reframed as the Neurobehavior HOME Program to remove artificial distinctions based upon funding sources rather than approaches to care. The name "Neuropsychiatric Clinic for People with Disabilities" was removed and patients receiving mental health care only were identified under the Neurobehavior Clinic. The UNI HOME Project name was revised to HOME Program with the acronym representing "Healthy Outcomes Medical Excellence" as well as the "medical home" model of care.
In July 2005, the clinic moved to 650 Komas Drive, a specially designed facility to meet the medical and mental health needs of our client population. The Neurobehavior HOME program serves over 900 people of all ages who have developmental disabilities, with over 750 people enrolled in the HOME Program. In 2009 HOME collaborated with the Health Clinics of Utah to expand its service locations to include Ogden, so patients would be able to access care closer to where they live. We have plans for further expansion to meet the needs of our patients.
