To Our Acadia Healthcare Community,

Behavioral health services in the United States have never been in greater need. Anxiety, depression and suicides among youth are at record levels. Between 2016 and 2020, the rate of youth experiencing anxiety or depression grew from 9.4% to 11.8%.¹ The data is even more staggering following the pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2021 nearly 25% of high school students seriously considered suicide, 18% made a plan to attempt suicide, and over 10% of young people made at least one suicide attempt in the past year. All while over 40% experienced persistent feelings of hopelessness and sadness.² At the same time, there has been a rapid reduction in availability of residential treatment facilities, further compounding these issues and compromising help for so many struggling with serious mental illness.

Residential youth treatment centers (RTC) have a critical role in addressing this crisis, and Acadia is a key part of the health care continuum for adolescent behavioral health, including treating youth who may otherwise receive no treatment at all. Thousands of youths have been successfully discharged from Acadia’s facilities with great outcomes. We are proud of our over 23,000 employees across the Company and in our facilities and the benefits their care has brought to the lives of our patients, their families and the communities we serve nationwide.

At Acadia, we are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure that all patients in Acadia’s care receive the support and compassionate treatment they deserve, and Acadia is at the forefront of our industry in initiatives that improve care. Over the last two years, for example, we have been deploying new talent, technology, clinical protocols and training across all of our service lines to drive forward our culture of caring, including:

Expanding the Company’s organizational structure with new roles critical to providing safe, quality care. For example, we advanced oversight of our care and safety programs by splitting Quality and Compliance into two distinct, specialized teams. Our Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer of Inpatient Services provide direct oversight on patient safety, clinical quality and regulatory compliance initiatives, while our Chief Compliance Officer provides direct oversight of our corporate compliance program. We also established new safety committees at each facility comprised of facility management and frontline staff to promote quality assurance and continuous improvement.
Allocating approximately $100 million in additional technology investments that enhance patient and staff safety as well as care coordination, such as electronic medical records (EMR) systems, a wearable remote patient monitoring system, a communication and assistance alert device for staff and a cloudbased performance improvement software solution, all of which provide greater transparency on all clinical and quality operations and oversight at our facilities.
Incorporating new field-based training programs for frontline caregivers – such as milieu management and verbal de-escalation training – to create a more therapeutic environment that improves patient experience and enhances clinical outcomes.
Standardizing clinical protocols and oversight to address head-on the fragmentation and variability patients have historically faced when seeking treatment for life-threatening behavioral health and substance use disorders.

It will take time for the benefits of our initiatives to be fully realized, but the changes we are making are delivering positive results. For example, across our 161 CTC Opioid Treatment Programs, we scored >99% against all 13 dimensions of quality as measured by CARF, a leading accreditation body for behavioral health facilities. In addition, more patients have expressed feelings of safety, hope and healing when rating their care in our facilities; our patient experience scores have meaningfully increased in just one year.

As a leader in our industry, we will continue to collaborate with policy makers, patient advocates and other industry stakeholders to achieve the absolute best care for our patients. We know it is essential to get this right, and we are committed to making sure Acadia does just that.

Sincerely,