The county superintendent of public welfare in each county shall, upon the request of the department of mental health, and in accordance with its direction, give special care and attention to the needs of any patient recently discharged from the state hospital for the insane who resides in his county, either on parole or permanent discharge, to the end that such patients may be established in such favorable circumstances as shall tend to prevent their relapse into insanity, and shall report on the progress of such former patients to the department of mental health, and under its direction, to the institution from which they have been paroled or discharged.