Possible programmatic consequences of community mental health center funding arrangements: illustrations based on inpatient utilization data.

Funding arrangements have a direct and substantial influential effect on the delivery of mental health services. Despite the original intent of the community mental health center philosophy, centers have not been freed from programmatic limitations imposed by the fiscal systems. The focus of this article is the inpatient unit that has the key role as relates to a center's ability to raise revenue. Using data from a study of community mental health center inpatient utilization patterns, the authors demonstrate that centers face the problem of becoming revolving doors (for a recidivist population). Existing fiscal arrangements, it is suggested, reinforce this pattern and tend to downplay innovative alternatives to traditional inpatient care.