We invite you to view this page and the Substance Monitoring Interactive Dashboard to learn about substance use in Allegheny County.

Background

Traditional data to track substance use—such as hospital records, medical claims and overdose fatalities—are delayed and incomplete. These methods also miss the emergence of new substances in communities. To close these gaps in knowledge and service engagement, Allegheny County partners with Prevention Point Pittsburgh and the UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab to provide drug checking^ⓘ and Biobot for wastewater surveillance.^ⓘ

By combining data on wastewater analysis and drug checking results, Allegheny County has an increased understanding of local trends in the drug supply and in volume of substance use. This information, coupled with the more traditional data on substance use, helps the County make data-informed decisions that enhance the timeliness and effectiveness of substance use prevention, intervention and treatment efforts.

Dashboard Content

The Substance Monitoring Interactive Dashboard has six main sections:

1. 1. Homepage: The Homepage presents the purpose of the dashboard, outlines the gaps in substance use monitoring, and introduces the two core data sources for this dashboard: wastewater analysis and drug checking results.
   2. Wastewater Surveillance Data is an interactive tab where users can filter by type of high-risk substance, track its presence in wastewater over time, and compare local, regional and national findings.
   3. PPP Drug Checking Results is an interactive tab that allows users to select substances of interest, adjust timeframes, and compare suspected and actual sample contents.
   4. About Wastewater Data details the collection and testing process conducted by Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) and Bibot, defines parent drugs and metabolites, and includes a brief glossary of some high-risk substances. 
   5. About Drug PPP Checking defines drug checking, describes how Prevention Point Pittsburgh and the UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab collaborate and states the value drug checking provides the community. 
   6. Wastewater Download View is a tab that lets users view and download data on the effective concentration for high-risk substances in wastewater, with filters for substance name, drug type, region and date range.

The data contained in this dashboard serves as indicators of broad trends and emerging risks in the community rather than exact prevalence rates in substance use.

How the County Uses this Information

DHS and its partners use the dashboard to:

1. Monitor substance use trends in Allegheny County.
2. Supplement traditional data sources to fill gaps in drug tracking.
3. Identify emerging risks and make informed adjustments to outreach efforts.
4. Coordinate with agencies and providers to deliver timely, targeted harm reduction interventions.
5. Compare local data with broader contexts to guide planning and resource allocation.

Trouble viewing the dashboard below? You can view it directly here.

 

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

We invite you to explore this page to understand how Allegheny County is using settlement funds to address the opioid epidemic.

 

In 2021 and 2022, states and localities reached historic settlements with manufacturers and distributors of opioids, as well as pharmacy chains and a consulting firm, for their roles in the opioid epidemic. As a result of these settlements, Allegheny County will receive annual payments in varying amounts, every December, through at least 2038.

Two major objectives guide Allegheny County’s use of opioid settlement funds:

• reducing fatal overdoses
• reducing the harms from opioid use disorder

The flexible nature of the settlement funds compared to other funding streams strengthens Allegheny County’s ability to:

• provide stability for effective existing programs, especially when other funding is uncertain or inadequate
• expand effective services and build capacity—such as covering upfront operational costs—that Medicaid or other healthcare funding does not cover
• support emerging strategies and fund innovative solutions aimed at addressing the opioid epidemic

Dashboard and Reports

The dashboard and reports—housed on this page—track the use of settlement funds and document the outcomes of the investments.

1. 1. 2024 Opioid Settlement Fund Report (Published 2025): describes the County’s strategy to address the opioid epidemic and the programmatic investments made with opioid settlement dollars in 2024.
   2. Opioid Settlement Community Listening Sessions Findings: reports the results and findings from community listening sessions held in 2024. Community priorities for opioid settlement spending included: expanding treatment access, reducing harm and stigma, improving housing stability and investing in family strengthening supports and services.
   3. Opioid Settlement Dashboard (2022-Present): displays an interactive dashboard that tracks Allegheny County’s spending of opioid settlement funds across different programs and priorities.

Previous:

1. 1. 2023 Opioid Settlement Fund Report (Published 2024): details how Allegheny County used it’s first installment of opioid settlement funds.

Key Takeaways

1. Decrease in fatal overdoses: There was a 35% decline in fatal overdoses from January to August 2024 compared to the same period in 2023 (301 compared to 466).
2. Decline in wastewater levels for norfentanyl and xylazine:
   1. The concentration of norfentanyl (a proxy for fentanyl) in wastewater dropped by more than 60% from March 2024 through the end of December 2024.
   2. The concentration of xylazine (a drug often used in veterinary medicine as a sedative) in wastewater levels had a sharp decline over the course of 2024, falling over 80%.
3. Expansion of treatment in jail: The total count of individuals receiving any medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in the jail more than doubled from 2023-2024—from 889 to 1,800.
4. Growth of mobile and telehealth treatment access:
   1. Mobile units operated by Prevention Point Pittsburgh (PPP) served 600 patients in high need communities at no cost.
   2. Telemedicine services offered by the UPMC Bridge Clinic—a fast turnaround MOUD prescribing service—had over 2,000 encounters in 2024, and most patients accessed medication within two hours of their telehealth visit.
5. Support for community-led solutions: In 2024, Allegheny County dedicated nearly $1 million in settlement funds to support initiatives led, designed or operated by highly impacted communities.
6. Investments in harm reduction strategies: In 2024, syringe services reached 700 new visitors and 3,000 returning visitors. The service program collected approximately 40 cubic feet of medical waste each month by collecting used supplies (e.g., needles, syringes) from visitors—supporting safe handling and disposal of medical waste in the community.
7. Direction from the community: 2024 settlement investments reflected community input from the listening sessions—demonstrating Allegheny County’s commitment in shared decision-making.

How the County Uses this Information

Allegheny County uses the dashboard and reports to ensure it uses opioid settlement funds responsibly, equitably and effectively. Specifically, the County uses this information to:

1. Monitor trends and outcomes in overdoses, treatment access and disparities across populations.
2. Fill service gaps by directing funds to under-funded effective programs and by financing programs prioritized or endorsed by the community.
3. Invest in evidence-based supports and services that support the improvement of current programs, the piloting of new initiatives and the design of innovative solutions.
4. Drive continuous improvement efforts that strengthen partnerships and improve coordination across Allegheny County.
5. Share insights and lessons learned with other communities and jurisdictions looking to pursue similar efforts.
6. Strengthen public trust through advancing transparency in use of funds.

What’s Next

For 2025-2026, Allegheny County plans to use opioid settlement funds to:

1. Expand access to low-barrier, high-quality, evidence-based MOUD and recovery support services.
2. Continue to support treatment in the Allegheny County Jail, including continuity of care post-release.
3. Increase services in highly impacted communities—improving mobile units for MOUD distribution and wound care, strengthening harm reduction services and enhancing targeted interventions for people at highest risk.
4. Upgrade supportive housing by investing in recovery housing and permanent supportive housing for people with opioid use disorder.

Allegheny County has also issued a funding opportunity called the Open Solicitation for Programs that Prevent or Treat Opioid Addiction Under the Guidelines of the Opioid Settlement Fund. Through this Request for Proposals (RFP), Allegheny County seeks additional ideas from the community on how to improve outcomes for groups disproportionately or hardest impacted by the opioid epidemic, particularly the Black community, people who are currently or recently incarcerated, individuals experiencing homelessness, people who inject drugs, and people with chronic pain or disabilities.

 

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

Since 2022, the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board (JOB) has approved monthly disbursements of $125 to individuals in custody from the Incarcerated Individuals Welfare Fund (IIWF). In 2024, the IIWF program provided more than $2.6 million to over 6,000 accounts for incarcerated individuals. These payments provide individuals in custody with funds that can cover expenses for phone calls, tablet use, commissary items and legal fess (e.g., fines, bail). Recipients can also save funds for use after release.

In January 2025, the JOB asked DHS to provide a descriptive analysis of the IIWF’s recipients and their use of the funds to inform future disbursement of the IIWF. Review the report to learn more about the IIWF—including who receives funds, how recipients spend funds and what impact the funds have on individuals’ outcomes post release.

Key Takeaways

Reach

• Sixty-three percent of people in the ACJ in 2024 received at least one $125 payment from the IIWF during their stay. If the JOB were to disburse money more than one time a month, more people in the jail would benefit from receiving it.

Reliance

• 1 in 5 IIWF recipients did not receive any other deposits in their account, underscoring the importance of the IIWF for individuals in custody who do not receive funds from families and friends outside the jail.

Spending Patterns

• External deposits (from friends and family) did not decrease with the onset of the IIWF. 
• For individuals who received funds in their first month at the ACJ, the IIWF lead to an increase in spending in every category of purchase—especially on commissary items.

Balance at Release

• Among Individuals in the ACJ for one month or less
  • • The median balance of IIWF recipients at release was $105 more than individuals who did not receive payments through IIWF.
    • IIWF recipients were almost 5x more likely to have a balance over $50 at release than non-recipients.

• Among long stayers (individuals who stayed more than a month in jail):
  • • After the implementation of the IIWF, the median balance at release grew from $4 to $60 and the share of individuals leaving the jail with at least $10 rose from 45% to 76%.

Post-Release Outcomes

• Short-term outcomes—such as rebooking, emergency room use, shelter use, street homelessness—were not significantly different between individuals who left the ACJ with more than $75 and those who had no funds at release.

 

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

Parental overdose fatalities have adverse and lasting effects on children’s mental health – heightening the risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. The period leading up to a parent’s fatal overdose may also involve trauma and instability, shaping the conditions in which negative outcomes emerge and persist for children and their families. These consequences may extend far beyond the fatal overdose itself, affecting children’s wellbeing into adulthood and straining the stability of their support systems, including family members who take on increased caregiving responsibilities.

Despite the profound and harmful impacts of parental overdose fatalities, no federal or state data systems currently link parental overdose deaths to their children. This gap in human service infrastructure makes it difficult to (1) identify affected children and families and (2) provide timely, targeted support—especially for those most in need.

This report presents insights drawn from Allegheny County’s integrated data system, which helps illuminate the demographics and service involvement of children and families impacted by parental overdose fatalities.

Key Takeaways

Scope

From 2016-2023, there were 1,694 parents who died of an overdose, leaving behind more than 3,500 children – an average of 447 children per year.

Demographics of the Children

• The most common age group at the time of parental overdose was 13-17 (25%), but half were under 13 at the time of their parent’s death and 14% (503) were under five.
• Although most of the children (63%, 2,223) were White, Black children disproportionately lost their parents.

Parent’s System Involvement

• Most of the parents had prior — and recent — engagement with behavioral health services; more than half received substance abuse treatment services in the 12 months prior to their death.
• Although most had no child welfare involvement at the time of death, many had prior contact, with most first entering the child welfare system more than four years before the fatal overdose.
• In the year prior to their death, more than 70% visited an emergency department.
• More than one-quarter were in the Allegheny County Jail that year.

Children’s Service Involvement

• Most children had no connection to human services in the year before or after their parent’s death, and interaction with most services stayed consistent pre- and post-death.
• Compared to other Medicaid-enrolled children and youth, this group had higher rates of mental health outpatient care before their parent’s death.
  • • Involvement in mental health outpatient services increased in the nine months after a parent’s death, suggesting increased support during that period.
    • After nine months, treatment rates returned to pre-death levels.
• Over 30% had a prior child welfare removal – 7% were in a placement at the time of their parents’ death.

Special Focus: Children Under Five

Children under five represent a critical population:

• Fourteen percent (503 children) were under five at the time of their parent’s death, and more than 80% did not use early childhood services in the year before or after the death.
• Seventy-five children were under the age of 1 at the time of their parent’s death.
  • • More than a third of these children had an open child welfare case at some point prior to their parent’s death.
    • 1 in 5 were in placement at the time of the death.
    • Eleven percent (8) of these children had a referral to child welfare alleging a substance-exposed newborn prior to the parent’s death.

How DHS Uses This Information

DHS uses these data to:

• use public funding — such as opioid settlement funds — responsibly and equitably to provide care and support to those most in need.
• strengthen intervention strategies aimed at supporting the wellbeing of children and families.
• promote transparency and build shared understanding around child bereavement and parental overdose fatalities.
• surface a critical gap—linking parental overdoses to bereaved children — in human service work and systems.

What’s Next

Allegheny County will receive annual installments of opioid settlement funds (OSF) through 2038. Settlement dollars augment annual HealthChoices and Block Grant funds for behavioral health treatment and supports to help county residents. These are the current and upcoming ways DHS plans to use investments and collaborate with community partners to prevent and reduce substance use harm and fatalities in the community:

• Expanding Early Head-Start Child Care for children impacted by substance use
• Launching a County-wide campaign to promote safe medication storage and offer guidance on naloxone (Narcan) use for households with small children
• Improving school-based assistance for children impacted by substance use
• Increasing medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) availability, including in the Allegheny County jail
• Creating warm handoffs to treatment from emergency departments, to facilitate rapid referrals to treatment for patients with SUD.
• Testing innovative strategies, such as contingency management (i.e., offering rewards when individuals achieve specific milestones or behaviors related to recovery), for stimulant addiction (e.g., cocaine, methamphetamine)
• Gathering continued input from the community to identify the most effective ways to support families and children affected by overdoses

These current and upcoming efforts aim to deepen DHS’s understanding of community needs and ensure the use of public funds strengthen community wellbeing.

 

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

Across the United States, homeless Continuums of Care are observing increasing rates of older adults experiencing homelessness. This brief examines these trends in Allegheny County, PA, where the share of the population age 65 and older is rising.

What is this report about?

In this brief, we looked at trends in older adults (age 65+) using emergency adult-only emergency shelters over the last decade (2015 through 2024), including their demographics, lengths of stay and exit destinations compared to other adults using shelter.

What are the takeaways?

1. The number of older adults in shelter more than tripled between 2015 and 2024 (from 58 to 191 clients), but they still comprise a small percentage of the overall adult shelter population. In 2024, the proportion of older adults in shelter was 7%.
2. From 2015 through 2024, 74% (N=611) of older adults using adult-only emergency shelter were men, but over the course of the decade, the share of older adult women using shelter has increased as the share of older adult men has decreased.
3. Forty-two percent of older adults using shelter in 2024 were Black, indicating disparity even among older adults in poverty; in 2023, Black individuals made up 17% of older adults in poverty in Allegheny County.
4. Since 2019, older adults exiting year-round emergency shelter stayed longer than adults age 18 through 64. However, older adults’ median length of stay has declined greatly after peaking in 2021.
5. More than 60% of older adults had just a single stay in year-round shelter over the decade; about 3% stayed more than five times.
6. Older adults were more likely than adults under age 65 to exit shelter to a housing unit with an ongoing subsidy, likely due to the higher number of specially designated federally assisted units available to these individuals.

How is this report being used?

This report provides insight into current and future housing support needs for older adults, information DHS can use to create new or enhance existing supports for older adults experiencing housing instability or homelessness.

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

 

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) actively monitors the size, location and conditions of tent encampments in areas frequented by people without housing (e.g., Downtown Pittsburgh and the riverfront trails).

What data is available?

The encampment survey dashboard covers encampment data for three areas – the North Side trail, South Side trail, and areas in Downtown Pittsburgh with visible homelessness. Surveyors document information in an online survey tool, including the location of the encampment, the number of tents/structures and whether any immediate action is needed. The data helps DHS track changes in encampment conditions, size, and location over time. The dashboard displays encampment counts from May 2023 to the present, and its data updates weekly.

This data does not attempt to calculate the number of people using tent encampments.  A tent or makeshift structure may house one or more people. It may also be vacant, shared, borrowed or used for storage. This dashboard’s scope is confined to specific locations with visible homelessness around Pittsburgh. It does not include data on other encampments that may be hidden from public view but still known to DHS or other outreach providers.

How does DHS use the dashboard data?

This information is reported weekly to DHS, the City of Pittsburgh, and homeless outreach and partner organizations, to ensure that they have the best information available for decision-making and to provide a timely response to any issues that may impact the safety of people using and/or sleeping in these public spaces. In addition to using these data to drive real-time action, trends in the data help quantify community needs, including emergency shelter demand and crisis response planning. This data – crossed with other data sources about the number of people experiencing homelessness – provides measurable outcomes to understand the extent to which investments in housing and supportive services impact visible homelessness.
 
DHS is aware that the presence of tent encampments can generate strong feelings in the public – from concern for health and safety to discomfort or fear. However, homelessness is often a negative outcome of economic hardship, systemic inequities and trauma – outcomes many people experience. Therefore, DHS encourages dashboard viewers to interpret the data with care. Interpretations made from this data should remain mindful of peoples’ lived experience.  
 
This dashboard has the opportunity to influence public policy, inform public safety, enhance outreach responses and support broad efforts to improve the lives of individuals in the community. If you are interested in learning more about housing instability and homelessness, we invite you to review additional related dashboards and reports on homelessness and shelters.

Click here to view the Encampment Survey Dashboard.

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

 

Each year, Allegheny County participates in a national census, required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. The Point-in-Time count enumerates people experiencing homelessness in the County who are sheltered (residing in emergency shelters), unsheltered (residing in places not meant for human habitation) or participating in a short-term, supportive housing program (transitional and safe haven).

What happened in 2025?

Allegheny County’s 2025 count was conducted on January 28, 2025. The number of people counted as unsheltered increased by 66%, from 169 in 2024 to 281 in 2025. These increases did not align with DHS’s real-time data collection (from street outreach and weekly monitoring of tents), which indicated stable or even downward trends in unsheltered homelessness.   

Unable to explain these contradictory results, we began a review of the methodology used for the Point-in-Time count. Our review found that the process for the January count did not have clear documentation and that some practices did not align with HUD recommendations, making interpretation of the results challenging. We decided to repeat the count, with a clearly documented methodology based more closely on HUD guidance, on March 18, 2025. The March 2025 count showed a 44% increase in unsheltered homelessness since January 2024 (from 169 to 244 people).   

We consulted with representatives from street outreach teams and members of the Homeless Advisory Board (HAB) to discuss results and for assistance in interpreting patterns in the data. The 2025 Point-in-Time report describes the methodologies and results of both the January and March counts. Also included are preliminary interpretations of the results and next steps. Refer to the dashboard to explore Point-in-Time data trends over time.

Key Takeaways in 2025?

1. We’ve seen increases in shelter usage among both adults and individuals in families with children. More adults and individuals in families with children were staying in shelter during both 2025 Point-in-Time counts than in the 2024 count. In January 2025, 570 adults and 354 individuals in families with children were in shelter. In March 2025, 550 adults and 336 individuals in families with children were in shelter. Compared to 2024, these counts represent relatively small increases, ranging from 3-7% for adults and 4-9% for individuals in adult-child households.
2. We have greatly expanded outreach, which likely resulted in a more comprehensive count. The City of Pittsburgh and the County have invested in outreach workers in recent years to help deal with rising homelessness. These workers are the main enumerators in annual Point-in-Time counts. The increased capacity for and geographic scope of outreach workers has likely resulted in identifying more people experiencing homelessness over the years. For example, increases in people counted in the East End may be at least partially explained by increases in street outreach capacity.
3. There are high rates of turnover in the unsheltered population. Only 19% of individuals counted were counted in both the January and March counts. For those counted in only one, almost two-thirds were not enrolled with street outreach programs using HMIS.
4. Using “people working with street outreach” as a proxy for a count of unsheltered individuals results in an incomplete picture. The 2025 Point-in-Time counts illustrated that the proxy we used for estimating people experiencing unsheltered homelessness—working with street outreach—misses people experiencing short or intermittent episodes of unsheltered homelessness.
5. The Point-in-Time count of unsheltered people has increased, but changes in approach make interpretation of the results challenging. Identifying increases or decreases in unsheltered homelessness year-over-year is problematic given changing methodologies over time. This means that we cannot confidently attribute these changes to real changes in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness versus changes in how we are counting people.

How is the County moving forward?

DHS is partnering with Bloomberg Associates, experts in Point-in-Time count methodologies, to facilitate a diverse workgroup of stakeholders to evaluate the methodology we have employed, to compare that current methodology to best practices in other jurisdictions, to provide recommendations for improving our methods, and to create a refined methodology that they will help us implement in January 2026. Bloomberg Associates will also externally validate our fidelity to the new methodology.

We expect that the methodology employed in the January 2026 count will differ from what we have used in the past. It may include the use of a larger and more diverse set of volunteers, a more explicit way to choose the locations to canvass throughout the County and/or a more intentional plan to survey people on the night of the count. Because of anticipated improvements, the newly designed methodology will serve as our baseline going forward. We will make the new methodology available publicly.

Previous Reports in this series

• 2024 Point-in-time Brief
• 2023 Point-in-time Brief
• 2022 Point-in-time Brief
• 2020 Point-in-time Brief
• 2019 Point-in-time Brief
• 2018 Point-in-time Brief
• 2017 Point-in-time Brief
• 2016 Point-in-time Brief
• 2015 Point-in-time Brief
• 2010-2014 Point-in-time Brief

Background

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) regularly collects feedback from community members who use DHS and DHS-funded programs. Collecting and using this feedback demonstrates a commitment to continuous quality improvement, increasing trust among service users. DHS also administers broad-scale research surveys that gather data to help the Department conduct rigorous program evaluations. Recognizing the time and effort required for clients to participate in these activities, and the value of having higher, representative response rates, DHS has a standard practice of providing monetary incentives.  

Key Takeaways  

The data brief discusses the challenges of and solutions to scaling monetary incentives at large organizations, and it provides summary analytics about DHS’s incentive spending from Fall 2020 through December 2024.

• In Fall 2022, DHS invested in two key partnerships, including a digital gift card platform, that has resulted in collecting more client feedback and human subjects research than ever before.  
• From 2020 to 2023, the number of clients who were given a gift card for their participation in data collection increased by nearly one order of magnitude each year.  
• Offering incentives increased participation rates, improved sample representativeness, and reduced the amount of staff time needed for data collection.  
• While incentives encourage participation with research activities, gift card redemption is largely influenced by the gift card amount; only 21% of gift cards $5 or less are redeemed while 91% of gift cards $30 or more are redeemed.  
• The top 3 brands for which participants choose to redeem their digital gift cards are Amazon (29.8%), Mastercard (9.5%) and Visa (9.2%).  

Why This Matters and What’s Next

Client feedback helps DHS and its providers identify what services are working well and what are not meeting clients’ needs. Offering incentives increases participation rates, and higher participation rates lead to a more representative dataset to inform public policy decisions. Using technology-based business processes to collect data and process incentives allows DHS to do this at scale across nearly 500 contracted providers and over 200,000 clients served annually. Having extensive and robust feedback from the public ensures that residents are active partners in shaping service systems — and that those service systems are responsive, equitable and reflect the needs and priorities of the community.

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

Overview

This dashboard provides information on individuals who use services from the Allegheny County Office of Developmental Supports (ODS). To best understand the scope and role of ODS services, this dashboard includes data on demographic characteristics, diagnoses and the services and supports used by eligible, registered individuals. To offer a comprehensive view of service involvement for these individuals, this dashboard also includes data on additional human services and supports that falls outside of the ODS direct oversight.

Consistent and effective support requires a knowledge of who is receiving services and an understanding of how recipients use those services. This dashboard supports informed decision-making and collaboration among providers, community partners, policy makers and families by identifying patterns and gaps in service use — both within and between service systems. This information can guide strategic funding and service decisions —ensuring service delivery is responsive, equitable and aligned with the lived experiences of ODS service users. Ultimately, this dashboard has the potential to improve outcomes for service users in Allegheny County.

 

Trouble viewing the dashboard below? You can view it directly here.

 

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

Background

In the United States, there are barriers to accessing mental health services, especially for Medicaid recipients, who face additional challenges in receiving care compared to their peers who use private insurance. Medicaid recipients often have decreased provider acceptance rates and increased wait times for care. Reimbursement rates can influence the availability and quality of mental health services for these recipients, highlighting the importance of evaluating compensation frameworks and their impact on the access and delivery of mental health services.

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) partners with Community Care Behavioral Health (CCBH) to provide behavioral health services for Medicaid recipients. The resources (i.e. report and summary) present a decade (2010-2019) of information, encompassing claims data (i.e. billing and payment records) and rate variations. Analyzing data prior to COVID-19 ensures findings and inferences from the data reflect pre-pandemic conditions only.

What You Need to Know

The report evaluated over 1,100 behavioral health providers and over 90 service codes. The evaluation of reimbursement rates and service availability has identified some relationships between provider responsiveness and payment systems.

• A 20% increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates resulted in a 3.2% increase in services offered, demonstrating a small yet positive relationship. The increase in reimbursement rates offered a temporary increase in service provisions, but this effect was not sustainable, eventually declining or disappearing within 4-5 years. 
• Established clients made up more of scheduled visits than new patients during this time of rate and service increases.
  
• Larger providers have less challenges in adopting and adapting to rate fluctuations than smaller providers.

Why This Matters and What’s Next

In Allegheny County, Medicaid reimbursement rates are generally lower than Medicare rates. The disparity in these funding mechanisms suggests Medicaid enrollees are less attractive to providers than Medicare recipients. The analysis also suggests rate increases did not offer a sustainable solution for increased access to mental health services. Addressing system-level constraints (e.g. workforce shortages, limited facility capacity) may facilitate development of sustainable and equitable approaches to receiving care. Additionally, continued monitoring and evaluation of the needs of small providers, the disparity between Medicare and Medicaid rates, and the demand for a long-term sustainable strategy for service provisions may be particularly beneficial, as these efforts may be crucial in establishing effective and equitable health care solutions for Allegheny County and the nation.

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) engages clients and others who interact with DHS programs in a variety of ways: regular roundtables/cabinets (e.g., Children’s Cabinet); town halls and community forums; social media (e.g., Facebook and LinkedIn); and the Director’s Action Line (DAL). In 2018, DHS expanded its public engagement strategy to include SMS text messaging (texting), a tool that is convenient for recipients and allows DHS to scale up communication with clients and other Allegheny County residents.

How does DHS use text outreach? 

DHS uses text outreach in a variety of ways, including collecting feedback after a service touchpoint, increasing program engagement, recruiting for paid research opportunities, and providing timely alerts. Text messaging has allowed DHS to connect clients to resources at scale, and to solicit feedback from clients who would likely never otherwise have the time or opportunity to share their feedback.

What data is available?

The data brief provides more information about the communication strategy and descriptive analytics from 2018 to 2022. The interactive dashboard, which is updated daily, allows users to drill down to individual text campaigns to understand the purpose, the number of messages sent, and the demographics of people who were contacted.

Terms and Conditions

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In May 2022, Allegheny County assembled a taskforce of leaders to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) through improved coordination, information sharing, training, and implementation of interventions that target both those who use violence and those who are victims or survivors of it.

Historically, the County’s understanding of IPV has been based on national data, which, though useful, fails to capture local nuances that lend greater insight into specific community needs. The county published a report and dashboard to provide more local context to problems of IPV in Allegheny County by describing trends in demographics, human services involvement, and criminal histories among victims and perpetrators of intimate partner homicides (IPH). The report covers January 2017 through September 2022. The dashboard includes more recent information and is updated annually.

The analysis point to a disproportionate impact on individuals who are disadvantaged not only by their gender identity, but also by systemic racial and socioeconomic inequalities. Though IPV has traditionally been framed as an issue related to gender alone, a more intersectional understanding of risk and impact can better inform strategies for effective prevention and mitigation.

Key Findings from Report

• There were 45 victims (43 incidents) of IPV and IPV-spillover homicides from January 2017 through September 2022.
• The demographic trends among individuals involved in IPH are similar to those of overall homicides: victims and perpetrators are disproportionately Black, young (aged 25-34) and living in high-need areas. Black women represent the highest proportion of victims (37%, n=16), while Black men constitute the highest proportion of perpetrators (56%, n=23).
• Unlike homicides at large, IPH victimization disproportionately impacts women: 63% of victims of IPH are women.  While IPH accounted for roughly 7% of all homicides from January 2017 through September 2022, they made up 30% of all homicides with female victims.
• Both victims and perpetrators of IPH had high rates of involvement in human services.  74% of perpetrators had prior involvement with child welfare, publicly funded behavioral health, or homeless and housing systems.
• 58% of victims had prior involvement with child welfare, publicly funded behavioral health, or homeless and housing systems.
• Across all gender, race and role categories, about 53% of individuals involved in IPH – 47 of 88 – had criminal justice involvement at some point prior to the homicide incident: 63% of perpetrators (27 of 43) and 44% of victims (20 of 45). Among perpetrators with criminal justice involvement, both Black and White men had higher rates of involvement than either Black or White women.
• Roughly 24% of all IPV perpetrators had indicators of IPV history in either the criminal courts or child protection system. This is likely an undercount of true IPV history, as data limitations, legal restrictions and underreporting make identification of non-fatal IPV in the data difficult. Among those with domestic violence related criminal cases, the majority occurred in the 18 months prior to the homicide incident.

Read more about the county’s IPV work here.

 

 

Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) developed these publicly available, interactive dashboards in collaboration with resolve Crisis Services, the County’s provider for the 24-hour, 365-day mental health crisis service provided free to all Allegheny County residents.

These dashboards provide information about:

Crisis Calls: Overview of call volume to resolve Crisis Services through 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and resolve’s 24-hour hotline 1-888-7-YOU-CAN (796-8226), consumer wait time to reach call clinician, abandoned call rate, and demographics of person-in-crisis who received call services. Aggregate call information is from April 2021 to present and is updated monthly. Demographic information is available from March 2023 to present and is updated monthly.

Mobile Team Dispatches: Overview of mobile team dispatch volume, consumer wait time, reasons for mobile team dispatch, dispatch rate by neighborhood, and demographics of people-in-crisis who received mobile interventions. Information is available from September 2023 to present. Data updated monthly.

Police Involvement: Percentages of calls and mobile team dispatches with police involvements. Information is available from September 2023 to present. Data updated monthly.

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) funds programs to assist young adults who are transitioning out of the child welfare system (also known as transition-aged youth) to secure employment, education, housing, behavioral health services, financial advice and more. Despite these service offerings, transition-aged youth have higher rates of homelessness, substance use, mental health challenges and incarceration, as well as lower rates of high school graduation compared with people who were not involved with the child welfare system. While targeted services are important, some human service needs result from poverty, which can be mitigated by providing direct financial assistance.

What is this report about?

In the summer of 2023, DHS launched a direct cash support program called Cash Assistance for Allegheny Young Adults (CAAYA), which provided a one-time payment of $4,000 to young adults, ages 18 through 22, with a history in the child welfare system, who were experiencing homelessness or were young parents who had an open case with Allegheny County’s child welfare office. In this report, we present a mixed-methods approach to evaluating the impact of CAAYA, including longitudinal surveying, a quasi-experimental analysis of administrative data in the Allegheny County Data Warehouse, and semi-structured interviews with cash recipients.

What are the takeaways?

• CAAYA recipients demonstrated significant financial need. At the launch of the program, only 35% reported being currently employed and only 29% reported being in school either full-time or part-time. Those who had some form of formal employment in the 12 months before the program had mean annual earnings of $10,174. Twenty-eight percent had one or more children.
• CAAYA recipients also lacked financial support within their community. Two-thirds of recipients reported not knowing anyone who would lend them $500 in a time of crisis.
• Overall, the program encouraged about 100 individuals to open a bank account. Seventy-five percent (n = 774) of recipients chose to receive the money via bank account transfer and 25% via a virtual gift card.
• Recipients used the cash assistance quickly. On average, $2,769 of the $4,000 was spent within the first month.
• Car-related expenses ranked as the number one item for planned expenditures, and there was a 41% relative increase in car ownership three months after receiving the money.
• The program improved self-reported well-being after receiving financial assistance, but the effects faded in the subsequent months.
• CAAYA recipients increased their use of mental health outpatient therapy by 7% compared to a control group of individuals who were narrowly ineligible for the program. There was no change in utilization of crisis and inpatient services. In contrast to self-reported well-being, the program’s impact on usage of outpatient mental health services persisted for at least eight months after receiving funds.

How is this report being used?

As a result of this program, we are exploring additional opportunities to leverage cash assistance with this population to increase engagement in holistic supports and services. We are also considering longer-term programs with more frequent, smaller payments to targeted populations.  For future programs, we hope to receive state waivers for the impact of cash assistance on public benefits, especially if a program is designed to include ongoing payments.

For other local governments or providers who are considering cash assistance programs, we hope this report serves as a resource for program design and evaluation. Local governments should note that the success of the CAAYA program would not have been possible without our partner organizations. Trust in government significantly impacts the accessibility of services, particularly for marginalized communities. When first hearing about the cash assistance, many individuals who were eligible to receive the money thought that it was a scam. This skepticism was eased by having multiple trusted intermediaries ensure that it was a real program and that they should apply.

Allegheny County Department of Human Services developed these dashboards to provide information to the community about violence trends in Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh.

What is this dashboard about?

The dashboard contains information about all homicides in the county and city (as reported by the county’s medical examiner) and contains a link to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s dashboard showing shootings within the City of Pittsburgh. The dashboard shows trends in homicides, including trends in demographic data for victims and trends in homicide locations. The dashboard also shows information on human service, physical and behavioral health, income supports and justice involvement for the victims prior to their death.

What data is available?

Data on homicides is available through the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office. It is available from 2007-present and is updated monthly. Data on program involvement (including prior justice involvement) comes from Allegheny County’s data warehouse, which integrates information from more than 20 distinct sources. Read more about the county’s data warehouse here.