People who were clients but are not currently open to services may make records requests or provide other information that counties wish to scan into SmartCare. However, since SmartCare requires that every document be associated with a program, a person who is not open to any programs presents a challenge.
CalMHSA recommends that counties have an administrative program specifically for this purpose. When this situation arises, staff should enroll the client in this administrative program. Then, when they scan the documents into SmartCare, they associate the documents with this administrative program. Once all tasks are completed, staff then discharge the client from the administrative program.
This program needs to be taken into account when doing reports. For example, the “length of stay” for this program will likely be very short and would throw off system averages if not first removed from the raw data.
Some counties may require two programs, one each for the mental health system of care and one for the substance use disorder system of care. Some counties may choose to only associate this administrative program with their administrative CDAG. Each county’s setup should match the county’s specific needs and workflows.