Daniel Anderson1, Tsering Choden1, Tracy Sandseth1, Tricia Teoh1, Susan Essock2, Myla Harrison1; 1New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2Columbia University
Objective: The New York City (NYC) Board of Health amended the City’s Health Code, requiring that hospitals report to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene when individuals aged 18 - 30 are hospitalized for a first episode of psychosis (FEP). This study describes the implementation of NYC START, a program that meets patients while hospitalized to enroll in and provide a voluntary 3-month critical time intervention services utilizing social workers (SWs) and peer specialists (PSs) to connect individuals hospitalized with FEP to appropriate community mental health services post-discharge. Methods: Program staff service logs were summarized to determine mean number of contacts per week received by clients over time, types of services provided by SWs and PSs, survival analyses of time to discharge from NYC START, and connection rates with community mental health services. Results: Of the 285 clients who accepted NYC START services in 2016, 222 (78%) completed at least three months of the program. Contacts were most frequent in clients’ first week in NYC START with a mean of 2.5 ± 1.4 contacts, 1.9 of which were with SWs and 0.5 of which were with PSs. SWs provided a mean of 17.3 ± 4.4, and PSs provided a mean of 8.5 ± 3.5 client-specific activities per week. Overall, 249 clients (87%) attended an initial mental health appointment after hospital discharge while receiving care coordination services from NYC START. Conclusions: NYC START serves as a critical time intervention to connect people hospitalized with FEP to community mental health treatment.
