Transitions: Handbook of Managed Care for Inpatient to Outpatient Treatment

This is the first book devoted to the steps from hospital discharge to outpatient therapy. Structured interventions are provided along with the pitfalls and roadblocks that threaten smooth transitions. The focus on the continuity of care goes beyond traditional aftercare planning and use of referral networks. The authors critically examine problems arising from schedule delays, selection of inappropriate therapies, relapse and rehospitalization, unauthorized disclosure of the case file, agency bureaucracy, and damaged therapist-client relationships. Case examples further illuminate failures of improper case management in contrast to step-by-step positive alternatives. The solutions offered are related to clients with specific hospitalized disorders (anxiety, anorexia, substance abuse) and special populations (children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly). Never before has a single work exposed the precarious transitions between programs and informed both clients and providers of ways to overcome mistakes by following simple guidelines.

Table of Contents:
Planning Transition When Are Patients Ready for Transition: Ethical, Legal and Economic Considerations Selecting Therapies and Therapists Handling Emergencies for Rehospitalization Transitions for Specialty Groups Child and Adolescent Issues in Transition Adults and Elderly in Transition Dynamic Case Management of Eating Disordered Patients Transitional Living Centers for the Multiply Disabled Transition Failures in Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Managed Care and Transition Avoiding Liability in Managed Care Settings During Patient Transitions Empirically-based Decision Making for Managed Care Transitions Bibliography Index

About the Author :
DOUGLAS H. RUBEN is a clinical psychologist and president of Best Impressions International, Inc., in Michigan. He is the author of Drug Abuse and the Elderly (1984), Readings in Anorexia Nervosa and Eating Disorders (1984), Philosophy Journals and Serials (Greenwood Press, 1985), Progress in Assertiveness, 1973-1983 (1985), Family Addiction (1992), and co-editor of New Ideas in Therapy (Greenwood Press, 1987) and Handbook for Assessing and Treating Addictive Disorders (Greenwood Press, 1992). CHRIS E. STOUT is director of the Psychodiagnostics Division and Director of the Department of Clinical Research and Evaluation at Forest Hospital in Illinois. He is a co-editor of Handbook for Assessing and Treating Addictive Disorders (Greenwood Press, 1992), and the author of many journal articles.