Coordinating nonprofit children's behavioral health services

Alicia C. Bunger, David F. Gillespie
2014 Health Care Management Review  
Background-Why organizational cliques are associated with better performance in service delivery networks has yet to be explained. Certain properties of cliques may account for the improved performance including the composition of clique members and the quality of their relationships. Purpose-This study offers insight into how organizations working through cliques improve network performance by exploring the complementarity of services provided by clique members and testing two hypotheses about
more » ... trust and perceived benefits among clique members. Methodology-Survey and archival data were collected from a regional network of 36 nonprofit children's mental health agencies that belong to a coalition. First, clique analyses and network visualization were used to identify cohesive subgroups. Second, the complementarity of services provided by the groups was explored by calculating scores for each group to reflect the level of differentiation in services and client population as reported in archival data. Third, ANOVA density models were used to test whether clique relationships are characterized by higher perceived trust and benefits compared to non-clique member relationships. Findings-Three groups were identified. These groups provide complementary services to similar client populations. Trust within all three cliques was higher than non-clique member relationships. Members of all three cliques perceived greater efficiency and two of the three cliques also perceived greater access to care and service quality. Practice Implications-Results support selecting clique partners based on service mixes. To gain organizational benefits and improve network performance, partners should offer distinct services relative to one other but to similar clients. Keywords cliques; networks; children's behavioral health services; complementarity Children and youth with behavioral health problems often have service needs that extend beyond the capacity of a single agency (Burns et al., 1995) . Comprehensive care typically entails services delivered by multiple organizations. Properly aligning services across
doi:10.1097/hmr.0b013e31828c8b76 pmid:23518763 pmcid:PMC3706570 fatcat:ro2ij5hdsfhungjhuavw3vlosy