Hosp Community Psychiatry. 1980 Oct;31(10):690-2.
A regional mental health-mental retardation center has reduced admissions to state institutions for the citizens of the Gulf Coast in Texas by 74 per cent over the past ten years. The center serves first those most in need, based on risk of institutionalization. Because it focuses on the clients' level of functioning rather than on diagnosis, retardation services are not separated from mental health services. There are outpatient programs, day treatment programs, and residential services. Treatment stress clients' acquisition of practical living skills. The center's innovative measures include the use of law enforcement officers who are trained to recognize and deal with mentally and emotionally disturbed clients and thus divert them from the criminal to the mental health system, a liaison team that assesses programs and support systems needed to bring institutionalized clients back to the community, and a local inpatient unit for clients in crisis that precludes commitment to state hospitals.
过去十年间，德克萨斯州墨西哥湾沿岸地区的一家心理健康与智力障碍中心已将该地区居民进入州立机构的人数减少了74%。该中心首先服务于那些最有需求的人，这是基于他们被送进机构的风险来判断的。由于它关注的是客户的功能水平而非诊断结果，所以智力障碍服务与心理健康服务并未分开。这里有门诊项目、日间治疗项目和住宿服务。治疗着重于让客户获得实际生活技能。该中心的创新举措包括：利用经过培训的执法人员，他们能够识别并处理精神和情绪困扰的客户，从而将他们从刑事系统转向心理健康系统；一个联络团队，负责评估让机构收容的客户重返社区所需的项目和支持系统；以及一个为处于危机中的客户设立的当地住院单元，避免他们被送往州立医院。
