New research from Bob Poznanovich, creator of The Delta System. 10 pages, free.
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Intelligent Systems for Behavioral Health

Why people delay care.

The Psychological Patient Journey is a research-supported framework for what actually happens inside a behavioral health intake call, and why so many people who reach out never arrive.

  • ✓The five stages a caller moves through, and the question they are silently asking in each
  • ✓Where the losses concentrate, with the research behind every number
  • ✓How to raise the floor across an admissions team instead of only the ceiling

10 pages. 14 cited sources. No sales call required to read it.

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The Psychological Patient Journey
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The metrics that matter

The front door leaks in two places.

Organizations invest in websites, contact centers and staff training, and still lose most people before treatment starts. The paper puts numbers on where.

45%

average attrition between the first call and the clinical assessment

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PATIENT JOURNEY, P.3
32%

lost again between assessment and starting treatment

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PATIENT JOURNEY, P.3
2 : 1

the gap between top and bottom quartile intake staff, with the same training and the same callers

THE IMPACT, P.8
What is inside

Five stages. Three layers. One conversation.

Most access models were borrowed from consumer marketing. A person calling behavioral health is not shopping. This framework replaces the buyer journey with the psychology of someone in crisis, grounded in Motivational Interviewing, the Transtheoretical Model, therapeutic alliance research and trauma-informed care.

1

Listen

"Do I have a problem?"

Recognition, ambivalence and willingness. Denial, shame and stigma are the barriers.

2

Learn

"What kind of help do I need?"

Discovery and understanding, across clinical need, financial reality and motivation.

3

Connect

"Is this the right place for me?"

Therapeutic alliance and solution fit. Trust forms here, or it does not form at all.

4

Commit

"I am ready to take this step."

Commitment to care, and the language that predicts whether it holds.

5

Engage

"Did I make the right decision?"

The bridge to arrival, and the doubt that lives between saying yes and walking in.

Layer one

The caller's internal question

The psychological task the person is working through, whether or not they say it out loud.

Layer two

The Care Navigator's responsibility

What the person on your side of the call has to accomplish before the conversation can move.

Layer three

Real-time support

Where guidance in the moment helps the right person say the right thing, without scripting the call.

"For the caller, the front door is no longer a coin flip."

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PATIENT JOURNEY
  • The language a caller uses at the moment of commitment predicts whether the commitment holds.
  • Two thirds of residential no shows or early discharges had been considering leaving since the day they committed.
Built on evidence clinicians already trust
  • Motivational Interviewing and OARS (Miller & Rollnick, SAMHSA TIP 35)
  • The Transtheoretical Model, stages of change (Prochaska & DiClemente)
  • Therapeutic alliance and dropout (Sharf, Primavera & Diener, 2010)
  • Commitment language as a predictor of follow-through (Amrhein et al., 2003)
  • Trauma-informed care as the foundation, not a technique

Fourteen cited sources across ten pages.

Who it is for

Written for the people who own the front door.

  • CEOs and COOs at substance use and mental health provider organizations
  • VPs of Admissions, access and intake leaders
  • Anyone accountable for the call-to-admission conversion rate
  • Residential, IOP, PHP, eating disorder and dual-diagnosis programs
BP

Bob Poznanovich

Creator of The Delta System. Senior Advisor at Anonymous Health.

Questions
Is this a product brochure?

No. It is a framework paper with cited research. Anonymous Health appears in one section, on how real-time guidance maps to the five stages.

Do I have to talk to sales to read it?

No. The PDF arrives by email as soon as you submit the form.

How long is it?

Ten pages, with fourteen cited sources. Most people read it in about fifteen minutes.

70% vs 53%

People scheduled within 48 hours of the call kept the appointment. People scheduled beyond 48 hours kept it far less often.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PATIENT JOURNEY, STAGE FIVE

Read what is actually happening on the call.

Five stages, three layers, and the research behind every number.

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