Predictors for Readmission into Children’s Inpatient Mental Health Treatment

The goal of this study was to examine factors associated with time to first and subsequent readmissions of youth ( N = 1,432) to one of Florida’s residential mental health treatment programs, known as State Inpatient Psychiatric Program (SIPP). Results of multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that greater maltreatment severity, shorter length of time spent in SIPP during the initial episode, and longer time to provision of targeted case management services were associated with earlier readmission. When time to subsequent readmission was examined, results of multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that shorter length of stay during the second hospitalization and having more than one mental health diagnosis increased the odds of experiencing subsequent readmission. One consistent finding across initial and subsequent readmissions was that the timing of service provision but not the amount of services was crucial for preventing readmissions to inpatient residential programs.