The Office of Mental Health (OMH) aims to improve mental health services statewide. Our Transformation Plan is part of OMH’s road map to a stronger community safety net.
Since State Fiscal Year 2014-15, OMH has invested millions of dollars in savings from bed reductions to develop and expand community-based services. Communities across the State are using these investments to strengthen the mental health safety net and helping tens of thousands of New Yorkers find high-quality services closer to home.
Areas of Transformation Plan Reinvestment
Reinvestment under the Transformation Plan supports several major service areas:
- Supportive Housing – Providing appropriate wrap-around services, helping individuals live safely in the community and avoiding becoming homeless.
- Children and Family Treatment and Support Services – Providing children and their families with rehabilitative services.
- Mobile Integration Teams (MIT) – State-operated teams providing an array of mobile services and supports for youth and adults, including on-site crisis assessment, family support and respite.
- Child and Adolescent Crisis/Respite – New state-operated crisis/respite houses.
- Clinics – Expanding state and voluntary-operated clinic programs providing services that would be otherwise unavailable or inaccessible.
- First-Episode Psychosis – Staffing support for state-operated First-Episode Psychosis programs statewide through OnTrackNY.
- Crisis Intervention – New and expanded crisis intervention programs, many with extended hour coverage, mobile capacity, and peer-support.
- Advocacy and Outreach – New advocacy and outreach programs, guiding individuals through transitions from inpatient settings into integrated, clinically-supported community living, and linking them to community-based supports.
- Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) – Providing treatment, rehabilitation, and community support for people with severe mental illness whose needs aren’t being met by traditional mental health services.
- Forensic – Linking individuals with mental health services, providing specialized assessments for probation and courts, and reducing future recidivism and hospitalization.
- Long-Stay Transition Supports – Helping with the transition from State Psychiatric Center or residential stays of more than one year, into structured community settings.
- Suicide Prevention – Programs with the goal of zero suicides for individuals receiving health or behavioral health care.
- Skilled Nursing Facility Transition – Helping individuals discharged from State Psychiatric Centers with successful transition to the appropriate level of nursing or long-term care in the community.
- Sustained Engagement Support – Teams providing outreach services to individuals unsuccessfully discharged from State-operated adult outpatient clinics.
- Residential CR, SH, SRO Workforce Investments – Supporting targeted increases to certain OMH housing program types.
- Peer Specialist Certification – Training and credentialing program for peers to acquire the skills to help another in recovery.
Transformation Plan Status Reports
OMH issues monthly reports that includes:
- State Psychiatric Center (PC) descriptive metrics
- Descriptions and status of community service investments,
- Psychiatric readmission rates to hospitals and emergency rooms for State PC, Article 28, and Article 31 hospital discharges.
Monitoring Progress and Quality of Transformation Plan
OMH provides metrics and data tools for county leadership and provider agencies to track progress and quality of community-based services, including the major service areas supported by the Transformation Plan.
RECOMMENDED DATA TOOLS
- Vital Signs Dashboard (VSD)
Presents the public mental health system’s performance in select mental health programs. Reports focus on disparities in access, quality, and treatment outcomes. - County Planning Reports
Displays information about Mental Health service use and expenditures. Reports show average daily use and capacity of mental health inpatient and outpatient services. It includes statistics on readmission rates for psychiatric reason. - Psychiatric Services and Clinical Knowledge Enhancement System (PSYCKES):
Provides trends on quality measures to assist with quality improvement and progress monitoring. Users can view data at the regional, county, and provider level.
Comments or questions about the information on this page can be directed to the Office of Planning.