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The Effectiveness of Involuntary Outpatient Treatment
Empirical Evidence and the Experience of Eight States
Many states use civil commitment — a statutorily created and court-ordered form of compulsory treatment — to compel people with mental illness who become gravely disabled or dangerous to themselves or others to undergo treatment. In the last decade, many states have amended or interpreted their existing civil commitment statutes to allow for involuntary outpatient treatment. Such a law has been proposed for California. At the request of the California State Senate, the authors conducted a systematic literature review on involuntary outpatient commitment; examined the experience of eight other states including statutory analysis and in-depth interviews with attorneys, public officials, and psychiatrists; and analyzed California administrative data for all persons served by California's county contract mental health agencies. They found that involuntary outpatient commitment, when combined with intensive mental health services, can be effective in reducing the risk of negative outcomes. But whether a court order in and of itself has any effect is an unanswered question. However, there is clear evidence that intensive community-based voluntary mental health treatment can produce good outcomes. There are no cost effectiveness studies that compare the relative return on investment in developing an involuntary outpatient treatment system or focusing all available resources on developing state-of-the-art treatment systems. Either approach would require a sustained commitment by California policymakers.
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Contents
Preface PDF
Summary PDF
Acknowledgments PDF
Chapter I:
Introduction PDF
Chapter II:
Study Approach and Methods PDF
Chapter III:
What Does the Empirical Literature Tell Us About the Effectiveness of Involuntary Treatment? PDF
Chapter IV:
What Does the Empirical Literature Tell Us About the Effectiveness of Alternatives? PDF
Chapter V:
How Have Other States Implemented Involuntary Outpatient Treatment? PDF
Chapter VI:
What Lessons Have Been Learned from the Experience of Other States? PDF
Chapter VII:
Involuntary Treatment in California: Who Is Potentially Affected by a Change in the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act? PDF
Chapter VIII:
Conclusion PDF
References PDF
Appendix A PDF
Appendix B PDF
Appendix C PDF
Appendix D PDF
Appendix E PDF
Appendix F PDF
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