New Report: NYS Office of Mental Health Falsifies Discharge Plans for Mentally Ill

An investigation by acting New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott found officials at Kingsboro Psychiatric Center allowed the release of mentally ill patients without a required discharge plan and then directed staff to cover it up. In this particular case, Kingsboro discharged a mentally ill woman to a street corner near a shelter. (Read Full Report or Summary)
The Inspector General expanded her investigation and found the failure to see that discharged patients get appropriate care is systemic.

“Discharge plans exist for a reason: to protect the health and safety of residents being released. This failure put innocent people at risk, and that is unacceptable.”

She recommended that the state Office of Mental Health (OMH) strengthen discharge procedures.We are glad and thankful for the IGs report and especially to the media that reported it. Discharging mentally ill patients sicker and quicker is policy, not the exception and it needs to stop. Long ago advocates noted that NYS runs the best mental health system on paper, and the worst in practice. Most NYS psychiatric hospitals have a two token discharge plan: one token is to get you away from the hospital, and the other is to use as you will.
Individuals with mental illness discharged from hospitals are not supposed to be discharged to shelters. So hospitals allow patients to give false addresses where they will go to live; say they will live with their parents (whether they are deceased or not); say they have a cousin to live with (and then fail to contact the 'cousin' under the guise of confidentiality), and on and on. Hospitals release patients to programs that don't have room to accept them, and may have never been informed to expect them.
The blame lies with NYS Office of Mental Health Commissioner Michael Hogan who has transformed OMH from a system that used to focus on serious mental illness to one that provides social services under the guise of preventing mental illness and 'empowering' the highest functioning people. OMH has made 'reducing inpatient census' (OMH-speak for kicking mentally ill out) one of their highest priorities.As a result, there are more mentally ill residents of NY in jails and prisons than hospitals. There have been hundreds of Preventable Tragedies.
The Solution
In order to help people with serious mental illness, Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and NYS Senator Catherine Young proposed ammending NYS Mental Health Law to require involuntarily admitted mentally ill individuals being discharged from hospitals and mentally ill prisoners being released from jails to be evaluated for inclusion in community based services like outpatient treatment, assisted outpatient treatment (Kendra's Law), substance abuse treatment and others before they are discharged. They wanted the results of the evaluations provided to the local mental health directors and OMH. This would keep patients and public safer. Commissioner Hogan opposed their legislation. He did not want OMH informed about patients being inappropriately discharged.