Substance Use and Mental Health

Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS), along with Community Care Behavioral Health (CCBH), are pursuing a series of investments and initiatives aimed at addressing access to mental health services.

This report covers child fatalities and near fatalities in Allegheny County with a focus on drug ingestions, an increasing cause of these here and nationwide. The report discusses some of the county’s strategies to address this issue.

New information added. This post includes information on current Allegheny County Opioid Settlement Projects.

Updated with 2022 data. The Allegheny County Need Index was developed to identify areas of the County that have greater relative need. This report and related materials explore census tracts in need and recent trends.

DHS can reach our goals more quickly if we devote time and attention to several big, bold initiatives that will make our systems and our organization work better for everyone we serve. This document outlines our key initiatives in 2024—which are in addition to our core work of running effective systems of care for people.

This report highlights the 2023 DHS accomplishments that stood out. There are many, many other achievements. We chose the ones that made the biggest difference.

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) conducted a study of the involuntary hospitalization program in the county. Involuntary hospitalizations occur when an individual undergoing a psychiatric episode is […]

Making good, informed decisions about how to allocate limited resources is an ever-evolving process. The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) strives to make the most equitable decisions when […]

What are these reports about? Nationally and locally, policymakers and practitioners are interested in the people who frequently use publicly funded services, particularly crisis services. Most people who use crisis […]

Researchers and public representatives met to address challenges that persist throughout our crisis system. They developed a set of 16 recommendations.

This report and dashboard describe accidental overdose deaths that occurred in Allegheny County, with a look at trends in numbers of deaths, demographics, and substances involved.

Throughout the United States, people experiencing behavioral health challenges are overrepresented in the criminal justice system and Allegheny County is no exception. To better understand the state of our current […]

One way that Allegheny County promotes the provision of high quality behavioral health services is through value-based contracting (VBC), which pays providers of behavioral health services based on quality of […]

This dashboard displays information about County suicide trends since 2002

Suicide rates have been rising in nearly every state in the U.S. in recent years, and in Pennsylvania and Allegheny County, suicide rates are higher than the nation’s. This data […]