PPS: Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse

An open episode is defined as a continuous set of services used to address the participant's current needs with no more than a 90-day (substance use) or 180-day (mental health) break between services. This report provides lists of participants in your agency who have an episode that is currently open (does not have an episode end date), but who do not have any documented services within the past 90 or 180 days. 

There are two tables in this report: mental health open episodes without recent services and substance use open episodes without recent services. These lists are intended to help you identify participants whose episodes either need to be closed or updated to reflect their latest receipt of services.

Consumer statuses are submitted for participants with a documented Blue Ribbon Commission target population category of “ongoing, high intensity, comprehensive services” (H) or “ongoing, low intensity, comprehensive services” (L) upon the opening of an episode of services. The primary functional indicators included in the status update are living arrangement, employment status, and criminal justice system involvement. 

A “status update” refers to an update to a participant’s functional status and should be submitted every six months as long as they are participating in mental health services. This report provides a list of all participants with a status update currently due or overdue. Agencies can use this list to submit needed status updates or to close episodes if appropriate.

This report displays the participants who have open episodes and/or services in the PPS mental health and substance use modules.

An episode of services in PPS is defined as a continuous set of services used to address the participant's current needs with no more than a 90-day (substance use) or 180-day (mental health) break between services. An episode is considered open if there is no episode end date. An episode can be closed by entering an episode end date for the participant. However, all services need to be closed to do this.

A service is defined as a set of service delivery submissions with the same standard program category (SPC) code with the same provider. A service is considered open if the most recent service date for that service (same SPC and provider) has a SPC end reason of “19 -Service is continuing”. 

There are four tables in this report: mental health open episodes, mental health open SPCs, substance use open episodes, and substance use open SPCs.

This report is intended to help you improve the accuracy of your data. It can be used in conjunction with the "episodes without recent services" report. If you are trying to close out episodes for past participants, and there are still open services for these participants, you can find those open services in this report.

This report can also help if you are transitioning electronic health record systems and need to know which episodes and services are still open in your current electronic health record system.

This report displays the number of participants who received a service in the PPS mental health or substance use modules in the selected time period. The participant counts are displayed in bar graphs by month, quarter, or year. You can also query the number of participants in a custom date range. Each of the counts represents the number of distinct participants who had a service delivery date in the selected time period. Each graph can be filtered by SPC and year.

This report displays the list of participants who had services entered in the PPS mental health or substance use modules in selected quarters and years. The participant is included in a quarter if the delivery date of a submitted service is in the selected quarter and year. 

There are two tables in this report: mental health participant list by quarter and substance use list by quarter. The tables include the participant information, episode dates, and SPC code. Each table can be filtered by year, quarter, service (SPC). 

This report displays the consumer statuses submitted for participants in the PPS mental health module.

Consumer statuses are submitted for participants with a documented Blue Ribbon Commission target population category of “ongoing, high intensity, comprehensive services” (H) or “ongoing, low intensity, comprehensive services” (L) upon the opening of an episode of services and then updated every 6 months. These functional statuses include:

• Employment status
• Living arrangement
• Criminal justice status
• Number of arrests in the past 30 days
• Number of arrests in the past 6 months

The charts in each tab compare statuses for participants at the beginning of an episode to the values at their latest consumer status update. Only participants with at least two statuses are included. This allows you to see how a participant has progressed from admission to their latest consumer status update. You can also select to display only participants whose episodes ended in the year of their latest status. This can provide a comparison of values between admission and discharge.

The graphs are organized by the date of the latest consumer status. You can filter by the year of the latest consumer status; the admission status will then correspond to those participants and will include any year in which episodes were opened for those participants. You can also filter each graph by SPC. On each tab, you can view the graphs by count of participants or percentage of participants. 

These reports display the functional statuses and substance use information submitted for participants in the PPS substance use module since 2018.

Functional statuses

Functional statuses are submitted upon the opening of an episode of services for a participant and then updated upon the close of each service (an SPC with an end reason of something other than "19-service is continuing"). These functional statuses include:

• Employment status
• Living arrangement
• Number of arrests in the past 30 days
• Support group attendance

The charts in each of these tabs compare statuses for participants at the beginning of an episode to the values on their latest SPC end date (discharge from a service). This allows you to see how a participant has progressed from admission to the close of their last service. You can also select to display only participants whose episodes have ended. This can provide a comparison of values between admission and overall discharge from services.

Only participants with at least one SPC end reason that is not "19-service is continuing" are included, and only the latest SPC end date is included in the analysis.

The graphs are organized by SPC end date. You can filter by the year of the latest SPC end date; the enrollment status will then correspond to those participants and will include any year in which episodes were opened for those participants. You can also filter by target group, referral source, and specialty group of the participant. On each tab, you can view the graphs by count of participants or percentage of participants. 

Substance use information

Information about a participant's substance use is collected at the start of an episode. This data includes:

• Primary, secondary, and tertiary substances used
• Route of administration for each substance
• Frequency of use for each substance
• Age of first use for each substance

The substance use info tab displays the percent of participants for each substance by episode start year. You can select each substance on the graph to filter the other graphs to display data for only that substance.

The substance trends tab contains two graphs with the trends of substances used over time: a bar graph of the top five substances and a line graph that includes all substances.

These reports display information about the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment scores of Coordinated Services Teams (CST) Initiative participants in the PPS mental health module as well as other CST participant data.

CST information and CANS scores are entered manually into the PPS database in two sections:

• In the Mental Health Program Participant Information section, the CST start date, CST end date, and discharge reason are entered for CST participants.
• In the CST Data section within a mental health episode, the start date and end date for each living situation are entered for CST participants. The enrollment and discharge (or last available) CANS scores are also entered on this screen.

CANS data

There are six graphs that display information about the CANS scores of CST participants. CANS items are grouped into categories. For each type of graph, one displays items grouped by category and the other displays each item separately.

For the items on the needs categories, scores of 2 or 3 are classified as the youth having a “Need.” For the strength items, scores of 0 or 1 are classified as the youth having that “Strength”.

• CANS Comparison- Category: This report compares the CANS scores at enrollment to the scores at discharge (or the last available CANS). The questions are aggregated by category. The percent represent the percentage of total items in that category scored as a need/not need or strength/ not strength.
• CANS Comparison- Item: This report compares the CANS scores at enrollment to the scores at discharge (or the last available CANS). Each item is displayed separately. The percent represent the percentage of scores for that item that are designated as a need/not need or strength/not strength.
• CANS per Year- Category: This report displays the scores for all CANS administered in the selected year(s), regardless of CANS type. The items are aggregated by category. The percent represent the percentage of total items in the category scored as a need/not need or strength/ not strength.
• CANS per Year- Item: This report displays the scores for all CANS administered in the selected year(s), regardless of CANS type. Each item is displayed separately. The percent represent the percentage of scores for that item that are designated as a need/not need or strength/not strength.
• CANS Comparison over Time- Category: This report displays the scores for all CANS administered in the selected years, regardless of CANS type. The items are aggregated by category. The percent represent the percentage of total items in the category scored as a need/not need or strength/not strength. Each year's scores are displayed in a separate column.
• CANS Comparison over Time- Item: This report displays the scores for all CANS administered in the selected years, regardless of CANS type. Each item is displayed separately. The percent represent the percentage of scores for that item that are designated as a need/not need or strength/not strength. Each year's scores are displayed in a separate column. 

CST participant data

In order to calculate the number of youth in CST in a given year, data from both the Mental Health Program Participant Information and the CST Data sections is compiled. Since each type of data is entered independently of the others, a participant may have data in one section but not another.

A youth is assumed to be enrolled in CST in a given year if any of the following data elements are present in their record:

• The year is between the program start and end date; or there is no end date, but it is within three years of the start date.
• The year is between the start date and end date entered for a living situation; or there is no end date, but the year is within three years of the start date.
• There is an enrollment, discharge, or last available CANS entered for that year.

There are two tabs with CST data:

• CST Participant Count: This graph displays the total number of CST participants per year according to PPS data. If the count does not seem accurate, refer to the CST Participant List tab to view the CST data entered for your agency.
• CST Participant List: This tab contains three tables displaying data for individual youth, including program start and end dates, living situation dates, and CANS administered. You can search these tables by the last name of a youth.

Accounts for SAS EDW/DAR are managed through the Partner site of the ForwardHealth Portal.

A previous login used to access the PPS Portal reports in Business Objects through ForwardHealth is still valid. To access the SAS PPS reports, refer to the other FAQs.

To request a new login, refer to "Section 3 Getting Started" in the ForwardHealth Partner Portal User Guide.

When you login: In the "Role" field, be sure to select "PPS MH & AODA Reports."

Your request will then need to be approved by your local administrator. For more information on portal administrators, refer to the relevant sections in the ForwardHealth Partner Portal User Guide.

For help with account issues, contact the ForwardHealth Portal Helpdesk:

• Phone: 866-908-1363
• Email: vedswiedi@wisconsin.gov

To change or reset your password, refer to "Section 5 General Portal Information" in the ForwardHealth Partner Portal User Guide.

Once you have a username and password through the FowardHealth Portal, you can log into the SAS applications.

SAS EDW/DAR includes a virtual learning environment (Training Home) and a production environment.

• The Training Home website is where you go to retrieve training content and materials.
• The SAS Viya production environment is where you go to use the SAS software to access reports.

Refer to the External Users: Instructions for Accessing the SAS Environments (PDF) to log in to the SAS environments.

If you have any issues accessing either of these environments, contact the SAS Helpdesk at widhs-helpdesk@sas.com with a screenshot of your issue.

To access the SAS EDW/DAR training, log into the EDW/DAR SAS Training Home website and select the “Getting Started Training” tile. On the next page, select “External Users” in the menu along the top of the page.

Complete the following trainings to learn how to access and use the PPS Portal reports. Note: Follow the instructions for SAS Visual Analytics Reports rather than the SAS Studio Report Tasks, as the PPS reports are accessed through the SAS Visual Analytics application.

• Training One: Introduction to the EDW/DAR SAS solution
• Training Two: Accessing SAS reports

You can find a quick guide to navigating to Visual Analytics reports in the “Interacting with SAS Visual Analytics Reports” section starting on page two of the “Job Aid: Accessing SAS Reports."

If you have issues or questions regarding the training, contact EDWDARtraining@sas.com for assistance.

If you are interested in attending a one-on-one training session with a SAS instructor, contact EDWDARtraining@sas.com to request a training office hour. When requesting an office hour, please send a list of the topics you are wanting to discuss along with proposed dates and times.

Log into the Production environment and navigate to the Visual Analytics application by selecting "Explore and Visualize" in the upper left menu.

Within the SAS Visual Analytics application, the PPS Portal mental health/substance use reports are located in SAS Content/External/_DAR/Mental Health & Substance Abuse/Additional Reports/.

If you have questions about the PPS Portal reports, contact the Division of Care and Treatment Services at DHSWEBMAILDCTS@dhs.wisconsin.gov.

If you are able to log into SAS EDW/DAR but the "Mental Health & Substance Abuse" folder does not appear by following the path in the answer to the previous question, you may need to request DSS universe access for your ForwardHealth Portal account.

Log into the ForwardHealth Portal. Refer to the ForwardHealth Partner Portal User Guide for instructions if needed.

Follow the instructions in section 4.3 “Requesting DSS Universe Access” starting on page 35 of the ForwardHealth Partner Portal User Guide. Request access to "PPS MH & AODA Reports."

For help with account issues, contact the ForwardHealth Portal Helpdesk:

• Phone: 866-908-1363
• Email: vedswiedi@wisconsin.gov