[Post-Acute Care for Psychiatric Patients Under the Multiple Treatment Mode Provided Under Custodial Protection...

The concept of post-acute care (PAC) has been applied in Taiwan in the field of psychiatry through the "Post-Discharge Follow-Up Visits for High-Risk Patients" system, which is part of the "National Health Insurance Payment Improvement Program for Schizophrenia." Despite the difference in name, the core principles of this system are the same as those of PAC, namely to support patients in functional rehabilitation, reduce the risk of rehospitalization, and delay the need for institutional care. The PAC model has been widely used across various medical specialties and has proven to be substantially beneficial for psychiatric patients. In particular, PAC plays a crucial role in Taiwan's current "multiple treatment" model for forensic psychiatric patients sentenced to custodial protection. Through PAC interventions, patients under forensic disposition can receive continuous psychiatric care and community follow-up services even without hospitalization, thereby enhancing patient stability and social functioning, reducing recidivism and rehospitalization rates, and enabling the executing authorities to meet both legal supervision and psychiatric treatment needs without depriving patients of their freedom. Thus, PAC not only improves treatment outcomes but also allows the multiple treatment model to be effectively implemented at the community level. The practical experiences presented in this article illustrate how PAC is applied in the multiple treatment of forensic psychiatric patients sentenced to custodial protection. These experiences recommend increased implementation of PAC in non-hospital-based treatment models.