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Assistant outpatient treatment recommended for individuals with mental illness, poor treatment adherence
The InterAgency Board for Equipment Standardization and Interoperability has endorsed assistant outpatient treatment and other evidence-based practices as efficacious for individuals with severe mental illness with poor voluntary treatment adherence.
The agency recommends several policies and practices shown to effectively provide care for “the most challenging” individuals with severe mental illness. These include:
- assisted outpatient treatment;
- inpatient civil commitment standards; and
- a sufficient number of inpatient psychiatric beds.
The recommendations were officially adopted by the agency following consensus between the executive committee and leadership team at their annual meeting in Virginia.
The endorsement could potentially increase building momentum in states and Congress to reduce criminalization of mental illness.
“Our nation’s public mental health system is failing to meet the treatment needs of individuals with severe mental illness,” the agency wrote. “However, the lack of treatment manifests in each case, the burden of addressing it in the community has largely fallen to first responders — police, fire and medical — and to our nation’s sheriffs.”
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