Jane Plapinger is the Assistant Commissioner of the recently established Bureau of Planning, Evaluation and Quality Improvement, which is responsible for services planning, program evaluation, policy formation and performance measurement for mental health, mental retardation/developmental disabilities and chemical dependency services in New York City.  Ms. Plapinger oversees activities which use data to promote a culture of quality and outcome assessment within the City’s mental hygiene service systems. 

Ms. Plapinger has worked for the City since 1998, and has a long history of working in public health care since she founded Alliance for Better Health Care of Providence, R.I., a state-wide consumer organization that advocates for improved long-term care services for the elderly of Rhode Island, in 1981. Ms. Plapinger also served as the Project Coordinator at the New York Psychiatric Institute’s Department of Epidemiology of Mental Health Disorders, where she coordinated the evaluation of a city-wide pilot program to find housing for mentally ill homeless persons, and was the Associate Administrator of the Department of Psychiatry at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. She received her M.P.H. from Columbia University.

Areas of expertise
publicly funded services for individuals who are mentally ill, chemically dependent, developmentally disabled; planning and evaluation of publicly funded mental hygiene services; homelessness

Recent publications

Plapinger, J., PROS: NYC Overview, Presented to Fellowship in Public Psychiatry Program, NYS Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University, December, 2004.

Plapinger, J., Mental Hygiene Planning: A Public Health Approach, presented at the Health Research Training Program Seminar, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, July, 2004.

Plapinger, J., Mental Hygiene Service System Planning.  Presented at Epidemiology Grand Rounds: Using Data to Understand the Mental Hygiene Needs of New York City, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, March, 2004.