Harmonizing databases? Developing a quasi-experimental design to evaluate a public mental health re-entry program

► Report describes initiative to merge administrative databases to evaluate a public mental health program for prisoner reentry. ► Report systematically describes our original study design and the barriers we encountered. ► Report describes co-operative agreement/MOA between state agencies to share data for the evaluation. ► Use of public system datasets to evaluate the impact of services for multi-problem populations and their use of resources across multiple systems. ► Contrasting the nature, timing to re-offending and substance abuse relapse of open mental health cases released from correctional custody. Our study is the first-ever initiative to merge administrative databases in Massachusetts to evaluate an important public mental health program. It examines post-incarceration outcomes of adults with serious mental illness (SMI) enrolled in the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) Forensic Transition Team (FTT) program. The program began in 1998 with the goal of transitioning offenders with SMI released from state and local correctional facilities utilizing a core set of transition activities. In this study we evaluate the program's effectiveness using merged administrative data from various state agencies for the years 2007–2011, comparing FTT clients to released prisoners who, despite having serious mental health disorders, did not meet the criterion for DMH services. By systematically describing our original study design and the barriers we encountered, this report will inform future efforts to evaluate public programs using merged administrative databases and electronic health records.