An institutional-based care system in mental health has been replaced by a network of communitybased services with different levels of structure and support. This poses both an opportunity and a challenge to provide appropriate and effective care to persons with serious mental illnesses. This paper describes a simulation-based approach for mental health system planning, focused on hospital and residential service components that can be used as a decision support tool. A key feature of this approach is the ability to represent the current service configuration of psychiatric care and the client flow pattern within that framework. The strength of the simulation model is to help mental health service managers and planners visualize the interconnected nature of client flow in their mental health system and understand possible impacts of changes in arrival rates, service times, and bed capacity on overall system performance. The planning model will assist state mental health agencies to respond to requirements of the Olmstead decision to ensure that individuals with serious mental illness receive care in the least restrictive setting. Future plans for refining the model and its application to other service systems is discussed. (e.g., Clifford, Charman, Webb, Craig, & Cowan, 1991;Durbin, Cochrane, Goering, & Macfarlane, 2001;Rothbard, Kuno, Schinnar, Hadley, & Turk, 1999;Seling & Johnson, 1990). As the number of state hospital beds has decreased over the past several decades, an array of residential programs have been developed with varying degrees of staffing support (Budson, 1990;Randolph, Ridgway, & Carling, 1991). Additionally, assertive community treatment teams (ACT), intensive case management (ICM), as well as psychosocial rehabilitation programs, have become increasingly available for people with serious mental illness. The importance of implementing community-based services has been further highlighted by the recent Supreme Court decision in Olmstead v. L.C., 119 S. Ct. 2176Ct. (1999, which affirmed that unnecessary institutionalization of individuals with disabilities is discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). States are now required to have a comprehensive, effective working plan to establish compliance with the ADA (Fox-Grage, Folkemer, & Lewis, 2003).
HHS Public AccessIn this era of advanced deinstitutionalization, mental health administrators and planners are faced with the challenge of providing an appropriate and effective mix of residential, ambulatory treatment and support services for persons with serious mental illness. This requires the ability to estimate demand for different levels of care given that severity of illness and accompanying social and instrumental disabilities vary across individuals and change over an individual's lifetime (Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, 1992;Herman & Mowbray, 1991;Tessler, Bernstein, Rosen, & Goldman, 1982). Shifting away from an institutional-based care system has been a significant step toward implementing an opt...