Commitment to community mental health aftercare services: staffing and structural implications.

This study examines the views of community mental health practitioners toward aftercare services and deinstitutionalized patients. A survey of 361 practitioners in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, finds that these views are related to practitioner experience in psychotherapeutic practice, professional affiliation, educational level, and amount of specialization in aftercare. Implications are drawn for staffing and structuring community mental health aftercare services in ways that are likely to enhance practitioner committment to aftercare.