The years surrounding the start of the new millennium may
very well be thought of as the era of the health care continuum. Attention to the
importance and role of the continuum of care abounds in journals, conferences,
and private dialogues. The health care industry has embraced the continuum as
a vehicle for enhanced quality, efficiency of operation, and responsiveness to
community and industry needs.
In the same way the richness of impressionistic art grew out of the overly
restrictive and defined art forms that preceded it, contemporary views of the
continuum of care provide a palette of possibilities that explodes with creative
energy, placing new definitions on the boundaries of health care delivery. In
behavioral health, the continuum renders obsolete its dichotomous heritage
of inpatient and outpatient care, a system that, for years, failed to mirror the
range and complexity of human experience and clinical needs.
A continuum, by its very nature, is infinite; between every two points on
a continuum a third can be found. Levels of care, such as inpatient services,
partial hospitalization, and outpatient treatment, define the conventionally
accepted points on the continuum. These levels of care constitute the structure
of a continuum. Yet structural elements can essentially stand alone without
relating to one another in any meaningful way. In fact, that is an apt description of many behavioral health service providers.