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.
- Format:
- Paperback, 176 Pages
- Year:
- 2001
- List Price:
- $15.00
- Price:
- $12.00 Special 20% Web Discount
- Full Document (pdf format) (File size 9 MB)
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
-
Download Individual Chapters Below
Note: Many electronic documents posted prior to 2003 are available as chapter PDFs or HTML files linked from the Contents.
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Available
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 176
- List Price: $15.00
- Price: $12.00
- ISBN/EAN: 0-8330-2980-0
- Document Number: MR-1340-CSCR
- Year: 2001
- Series: Monograph Reports
Contents
Preface PDF
Summary PDF
Acknowledgements
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
The research described in this report was performed under the auspices of RAND's Institute for Civil Justice and RAND Health.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation monograph report series. The monograph/report was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1993 to 2003. RAND monograph/reports presented major research findings that addressed the challenges facing the public and private sectors. They included executive summaries, technical documentation, and synthesis pieces.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2012 RAND Corporation.