The Official Policy Manual provides policy directives which represents the organization’s current statements related to the provision of mental health services for patients being treated at State operated psychiatric facilities.
These policies set systemwide requirements and are based upon statutes, standards, and executive level policy decisions.
Facility-Specific Policy
Where the OMH has not developed policy directives essential to the provision of mental health services, each facility shall develop policies consistent with good clinical practice and relevant statutes, standards and policies. When a statewide policy does exist, facilities must ensure that they are substantially in compliance with the policy.
Revision of the OMH Official Policy Manual
The request for development or revision of policy directives must be transmitted through the appropriate organizational channel (i.e. facility director, deputy commissioner). The decision to act upon requests for policy revision or development rests with the executive level of the organization.
Once the decision has been made to revise or develop a policy directive, it is essential to obtain input from clinical and administrative staff affected by the policy directive. The complexity of the development phase of any policy directive will depend on both the nature of the topic and any time limitations.
Once a policy directive has been distributed and implementation has been initiated, ongoing review is necessary to address the effectiveness of the policy directive. In some cases, further revision may be necessary. The appropriate organizational channel, (i.e. facility director, deputy commissioner), for the process is the same as that utilized during the initial identification phase.
Granting of Exceptions to Policy Directives
Official policy directives are established to uniformly apply to all organizational units. In some instances, however, there may be the need for an exception to all or certain provisions of a policy directive to accommodate a unique situation. Requests for exceptions to implementation of a specific policy directive or sections thereof must be made through the facility directors and deputy commissioners. Review of such requests will be made in consultation with the Bureau of Policy, Legislation, and Regulations within Counsel's Office to ensure that exceptions to implementation of policy directives are consistent with statutes and standards. The ultimate authority for granting such requests, and/or placing any conditions or limitations thereon, lies with the Commissioner.