Bridging the Gap of Client Engagement with Mental Health Services

Within Monterey County there is a continuum of deterioration of mental health and substance use. The Monterey County Behavioral Health: Adult Post Hospital Team (APHT) provides acute care to clients who are being discharged from the Emergency Room or Mental Health Unit with a mental health or substance use disorder. The purpose of the project is to help bridge the gap of client engagement through different collaborative methods of post hospital care. By analyzing quantitative data from the APHT tracking sheet and gathering qualitative insights through case notes and interviews with two mental health professionals, the researcher aims to determine whether clients are disengaging due to a lack of basic necessities, which may be creating a barrier to their involvement. With a random sample of the clients, it was found that 100% have MediCal health insurance, 20% are homeless, and 80% of clients have a phone number listed to get in contact with them. Although the lack of basic necessity was not the outcome, it was concluded that all of the clients from the random sample got closed by the agency because they never called back or stayed in contact with their case manager. For this outcome, I would recommend that the agency starts to work collaboratively with the discharge team in the hospital, and advances their telephony