Continuity of care in the delivery of mental health services.

The authors report on the help-seeking experiences of people referred to community settings for aftercare on discharge from a state mental hospital in western Massachusetts. They present results that bear on three questions relevant to public policy issues in the mental health field: 1) the proportion of patients who comply with referrals to aftercare agencies, 2) the social and psychological characteristics of patients who comply with these referrals, and 3) the impact of receiving aftercare on the probability of rehospitalization.