After discharge from a psychiatric hospitalization, people with mental health diagnoses are more likely to return to the hospital in the first few days if the right support isn’t in place.[1]
Your symptoms may be gradually settling down, you likely have had changes to your medication regimen, and your work, school, and family life all need to be picked back up at once. You might even need time to process the trauma you just went through. This is all a lot to handle.
“Continuity of care” refers to a smooth handoff from the hospital to the next stage of treatment. The Minnesota mental health system has multiple levels of treatment intensity to allow you to step down after a psychiatric hospitalization.
On this page, you will learn exactly how discharge from a psychiatric hospitalization is structured in Minnesota and what your next steps are. It explores:
Please note: The information on this page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. If you have questions about mental health care laws in Minnesota, please consult a qualified attorney regarding your specific situation.
Most people who receive inpatient psychiatric care in Minnesota are admitted voluntarily. In other words, they agreed to the treatment. Such patients can be discharged once the treatment team determines that they are medically and psychiatrically stable enough to continue their recovery outside the hospital.
Some patients, however, are hospitalized under Minnesota’s civil commitment law. The hospitalization occurs after the court determines that they pose a risk of harm to themselves or others due to a mental illness. The state-operated treatment programs are legally required to:
People under civil commitment can undergo provisional discharge, which is a supervised release from the hospital that happens under a specific, agreed-upon plan.[2] You return to the community while still receiving court-ordered oversight. If you don’t follow the plan, the commitment can be revoked, and you can be returned to inpatient care.
In any case, discharge from inpatient psychiatric care requires coordination between the treatment team and the patient (and often a case manager, family member, or social worker). It is a vulnerable point in a person’s mental health journey.
Minnesota offers several levels of mental health care after a psychiatric hospitalization. They include:
If a person does not qualify for hospital-level care but needs more structure than they can get at home, they can access Minnesota’s Rule 36 programs.[3] These are staffed, community-based residential settings where adults with mental illness live on-site to receive treatment and support with daily living skills.
The state licenses two types of residential programs:
Access to these levels of care has, however, been limited in Minnesota. A state analysis found that only about one in ten Minnesota adults who needed a supervised residential living situation for mental illness was actually residing in a licensed residential program.[4]
A partial hospitalization program, or PHP, is described as the closest thing to hospital-level care without actually staying at a facility overnight. Minnesota Health Care Programs guidelines describe PHP as a time-limited program involving multiple, intensive therapeutic services delivered by a multidisciplinary team.
To qualify for PHP in Minnesota, you need to be experiencing an acute episode of mental illness serious enough to meet inpatient hospital admission criteria. However, you have enough family or community support to manage spending the night at home.
Most PHPs in Minnesota run for five hours a day, five days a week, for about three weeks. The program includes:
An intensive outpatient program, or IOP, is one step below PHP in intensity. It requires several hours of group-based treatment multiple days a week, but the participants continue living at home and, in many cases, keep working or attending school.
IOP care in Minnesota is usually delivered by the same kind of multidisciplinary team seen in PHP. This team typically consists of:
Several Minnesota mental health systems, including programs based in the Twin Cities metro, have expanded IOP access in recent years.
Almost all patients eventually step down from residential treatment or hospitalization to outpatient care. This is the least intensive, most flexible level of treatment through which you continue to manage your mental health long-term.
Unlike PHP or IOP, there’s no set daily or weekly hour requirement for outpatient treatment.
The first week after a psychiatric hospitalization is the most vulnerable period for relapse. However, a study found that patients who had an outpatient visit within seven days of psychiatric hospital discharge saw over a 50% reduction in the likelihood of being readmitted within 30 days.[5]
In Minnesota, outpatient mental health care is delivered through:
The coverage for outpatient treatment is billed through Medical Assistance (Minnesota’s Medicaid program) or private insurance. Several outpatient clinics also offer sliding-fee scales for uninsured patients.
After you settle into one of the treatment programs discussed above, here’s an outline of what your day-to-day care typically revolves around:
Taking care of your medications is front and center in the weeks right after your discharge. Almost all patients experience some change in their medication regimen during psychiatric hospitalization. They might start a new medication, get their dosage of a medicine they are already taking adjusted, or switch from one drug to another.
You need to be monitored for the effects of the change. Many medications that seemed to work well in a controlled hospital setting don’t always suit patients when they transition into everyday life. Missed medication doses or abruptly stopping a medication are also major causes of relapse.
Therefore, Minnesota outpatient and IOP/PHP programs always have regular medication check-ins.
Alongside medication, most people have continued psychotherapy scheduled right after hospitalization to help them process the events that led to hospitalization in the first place.
The therapist helps them understand the triggers that worsened their mental health so they can build coping strategies against them.
Psychotherapy can be individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, or a combination of all. Depending on your symptoms, your therapist will deliver it in an evidence-based format, which can consist of:
Therapy prepares you to understand your warning signs well enough to manage a future crisis before it escalates to the point of needing another hospitalization.
Psychiatric hospitalization disrupts nearly every part of ordinary life, including:
The residential and PHP programs in Minnesota build your daily schedules so that you can get back to your usual routine. The program has a consistent wake and sleep time, group meals, scheduled physical activity, and skills groups focused on budgeting, cooking, job readiness, and so on. Research supports that a stable daily routine protects against relapse in mental illnesses.[6]
For a large number of people, mental illness and substance use go hand in hand. SAMHSA data suggests that around 21.2 million U.S. adults have a co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder.[7]
Minnesota law section 245.4863 requires that anyone undergoing a mental health diagnostic assessment be screened for co-occurring disorders.[8] The state has integrated dual diagnosis treatment (IDDT) programs where mental health and substance use treatment are delivered together, by the same team.
AMFM is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
Mental health diagnoses are chronic, fluctuating conditions in which setbacks are a normal part of recovery. Therefore, all discharge plans in Minnesota include a written list of personal warning signs and specific steps to take if they appear so that you can catch a relapse early.
If, however, your symptoms escalate to the point of a mental health crisis, you need to contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It can be reached by call or text at any time for suicidal or mental health-related distress.
Every single county in Minnesota, along with the state’s tribal nations, has its own mobile crisis response team. When you contact one, mental health professionals will come to your location, assess the situation, de-escalate it, and connect you to follow-up care – all without requiring a trip to the emergency room.
These services are covered by Medical Assistance. If you’re not sure who to call in your specific county, DHS maintains a statewide directory of local crisis phone numbers.[9] Dialing 988 will also route you to an appropriate crisis response team regardless.
Minnesota also offers warmlines, which are free, confidential peer support lines staffed by people with lived experience of mental illness. NAMI Minnesota also runs a helpline for non-emergency questions about mental health resources.
According to SAMHSA data, Minnesota’s state psychiatric hospitals have a 30-day readmission rate of 14.4% and a 180-day readmission rate of 26.6%.[10] However, many of these readmissions are preventable with the right follow-up plan in place. Here are some strategies to prevent readmission:
Take a tour of our residential mental health facilities located in Minnesota. Our locations offer peace & comfort within a residential environment where you can relax and focus on yourself.
At AMFM Mental Health Treatment (A Mission for Michael), we offer adult residential mental health treatment in Minnesota. We provide a structured, home-like setting for adults stepping down from a hospitalization for a mental health diagnosis.
Before you enroll in the residential program, we run a diagnostic assessment to understand your current health status following hospitalization. From there, our team of expert clinicians builds an individualized treatment plan consisting of medication management, individual and group psychotherapy, and support to help you get back to your routine.
We ensure a low patient-to-clinician ratio to allow close monitoring during this vulnerable treatment window. Our clients also meet with a case manager weekly.
Our Minnesota locations accept insurance and are in-network with many major providers. To check your insurance coverage for mental health care, simply complete our confidential online verification form.
Call us at 866-478-4383 if you would like to start the admissions process or learn more about how we can support your mental well-being. Our compassionate team is available 24/7 to answer your questions and provide guidance with no obligation.
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At AMFM, we strive to provide the most up-to-date and accurate medical information based on current best practices, evolving information, and our team’s approach to care. Our aim is that our readers can make informed decisions about their healthcare.
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