Office of Mental Health

Oversight of Aftercare Services

Most of the individuals discharged from State psychiatric facilities require assistance obtaining housing, employment, financial support, social support, education and ongoing mental health services if they are to make a successful return to the community. These various aftercare services are to be provided by the psychiatric facilities or contractors overseen by the facilities. We examined certain aspects of these aftercare services and found that many of the services planned for discharged inpatients were not verified. We further found that, even when the services were verified, they often were verified only once within 30 days of discharge, which may not be sufficient to cover the period needed for a patient’s successful transition to the community. We recommended that standard procedures be developed for the verification process, and facility compliance with these procedures be verified by the OMH Central Office through periodic site visits. We also found that, while the effectiveness of aftercare services was addressed to some extent by an OMH performance measure, the measure was not complete and needed to be supplemented by additional performance indicators.

For a complete copy of Report 2002-S-53 click here.
For a copy of the 90-day response click here.