The impact of regionalization on reentry service outcomes for individuals with severe mental illness.
OBJECTIVE
The belief that public mental health services should be regionalized has guided their delivery for the past four decades. But there have been few opportunities to observe and evaluate a service entity's shift from a centralized to a regionalized delivery system. This brief report focuses on the regionalization of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health's forensic transition team, a service that manages community reentry from correctional settings for persons with severe mental illness.


METHODS
Pre-and postregionalization episodes (N=957) were compared to examine the consequences of regionalizing the forensic transition team.


RESULTS
Overall, engagement in services, a key forensic transition team outcome measure, improved postregionalization. Unexpectedly, the rate of loss to follow-up significantly increased among former county house of correction inmates.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall, regionalizing reentry services increased the forensic transition team's capability and expertise in managing reentry for persons with mental illness. However, follow-up of individuals exiting county houses of correction remains a challenge.
Hartwell
Stephanie W
SW
Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125, USA. stephanie.hartwell@umb.edu
Fisher
William H
WH
Deng
Xiaogang
X
D000328:Adult; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index