Outpatient commitment

Legal power to control behavior of mental health patients while in the community
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Involuntary treatment
Restraint
  • Physical restraint
  • Chemical restraint
Involuntary commitment
  • Involuntary commitment
  • Outpatient commitment
  • Court order
Regulated by
  • Medical ethics (Informed consent)
  • Mental health law
  • Mental health tribunal
  • Capacity
  • Human rights
Alternatives
  • Voluntary commitment
  • Informal coercion
Treatment
  • Intramuscular injection (Antipsychotic, Benzodiazepine, Ketamine)
  • Force-feeding
  • Covert medication
  • v
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  • e

Outpatient commitment—also called assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) or community treatment orders (CTO)—refers to a civil court procedure wherein a legal process orders an individual diagnosed with a severe mental disorder to adhere to an outpatient treatment plan designed to prevent further deterioration or recurrence that is harmful to themselves or others.

This form of involuntary treatment is distinct from involuntary commitment in that the individual subject to the order continues to live in their home community rather than being detained in hospital or incarcerated. The individual may be subject to rapid recall to hospital, including medication over objections, if the conditions of the order are broken, and the person's mental health deteriorates. This generally means taking psychiatric medication as directed and may also include attending appointments with a mental health professional, and sometimes even not to take non-prescribed illicit drugs and not associate with certain people or in certain places deemed to have been linked to a deterioration in mental health in that individual.

The criteria and process for outpatient commitment are established by law, which vary among nations and, in the U.S. and Canada, among states or provinces. Some jurisdictions require court hearings, where a judge will make a court order, and others require that treating psychiatrists comply with a set of requirements before compulsory treatment is instituted. When a court process is not required, there is usually a form of appeal to the courts or appeal to or scrutiny by tribunals set up for that purpose. Community treatment laws have generally followed the worldwide trend of community treatment. See mental health law for details of countries which do not have laws that regulate compulsory treatment.

Terminology

In the United States the term "assisted outpatient treatment" (AOT) is often used and refers to a process whereby a judge orders a qualifying person with symptoms of severe untreated mental illness to adhere to a mental health treatment plan while living in the community. The plan typically includes medication and may include other forms of treatment as well.[1] Patients are often monitored and assigned to case managers or a community dedicated to treating mental health known as assertive community treatment (ACT).[2]

Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand use the term "community treatment order" (CTO).[3][4][5]

Comparison to inpatient commitment

The terminology, "outpatient commitment", and legal construction often equate outpatient commitment with inpatient commitment but providing the patient more freedom.[a] In practice, outpatient commitment may be used in situations where commitment would not be used because it is cheaper than inpatient commitment;[b] seen as less draconian; and protects mental health professionals from moral, civil or criminal liability.

Preventive use

Outpatient commitment is used in some countries to prevent relapse of mental disorders, as many mental disorders are episodic in nature (for example bipolar disorder or schizophrenia) and it can be difficult to predict whether a mental disorder will reoccur. Some countries use outpatient commitment for first episode psychosis (FEP).[9]

Implementation

Discussions of "outpatient commitment" began in the psychiatry community in the 1980s following deinstitutionalization, a trend that led to the widespread closure of public psychiatric hospitals and resulted in the discharge of large numbers of people with mental illness to the community.[citation needed]

Europe

Denmark

Denmark introduced outpatient commitment in 2010 with the Mental Health Act (Danish: Lov om anvendelse af tvang i psykiatrien).[10]

Germany

In Germany, CTOs were resumed in 2015[11] (formerly only for forensic psychiatry[12]). Laws regarding implementations are distincts between lander.

France

The CTOs are renewed every month. They were introduced under Nicolas Sarkozy presidency.[13] Persons committed are registered on a national file accessible by police, even if they are not suspected of breaking the law.[14]

The Netherlands

As of 2014,[update] Dutch law provides for community treatment orders, and an individual who does not comply with the terms of their CTO may be subject to immediate involuntary commitment.[12]

Norway

When Norway introduced outpatient commitment in the 1961 Mental Health Act, it could only be mandated for individuals who had previously been admitted for inpatient treatment.[10] Revisions in 1999 and 2006 provided for outpatient commitment without previous inpatient treatment, but this provision is seldom used.[10]

Sweden

In Sweden, the Compulsory Psychiatric Care Act (Swedish: Lag om psykiatrisk tvångsvård) provides for an administrative court to mandate psychiatric treatment to prevent harm to the individual or others.[15]: 61  The law was created in 1991 and revised in 2008.[15]: 62 

England and Wales

Changes in service provision and amendments to the Mental Health Act in England and Wales have increased the scope for compulsion in the community.[16] The Mental Health Act 2007 introduced community treatment orders (CTOs).[5] CTOs are legally defined as a form of outpatient leave for individuals detained under section 3 of the Mental Health Act.[17] As such, only members of the medical community are involved in issuing a CTO, though both the section 3 detention underlying the CTO and the CTO itself can be appealed to the Mental Health Tribunal where a panel consisting of medical doctors and a judge will make a decision.The legislation in the UK specifically allows CTOs to be issued after a single admission to hospital for treatment. However, the Royal College of Psychiatrists suggested limiting CTOs to patients with a history of noncompliance and hospitalization, when it reviewed the current mental health legislation.[c]

John Mayer Chamberlain argues that this legislation was triggered by the Killing of Jonathan Zito by an individual who had interactions with mental health services prior this event, which led the then conservative government to argue for CTOs.[19]: 127 

A review of patient data in London found that the average duration of a CTO in the UK was 3 years.[20] Black people in the UK are more than ten times as likely to be under a CTO as white people.[21]: 13  Concerns have been raised about the inability of Independent mental health advocates (IHMAs) to provide services to those under CTOs, since IMHAs cannot make contact with service users under CTOs and case workers could act as gatekeepers not providing referrals.[22]: 6

In a 2021 paper reviewing the mental health act, the UK government proposed a new form of indefinite outpatient commitment allowing for deprivation of liberties an continuous supervision termed supervised discharge. This discharge would be reviewed yearly, and only apply to individuals who would not benefit from treatment in a hospital setting and would be based on risk.[21]: 77  Further, this legislation would only apply to restricted patients who have been diverted to the mental health care system from courts.[23]

Scotland

Scotland has a different community commitment regime from England and Wales introduced in the 2003 Mental Health Act.[24] There is ongoing debate in the UK on the place of coercion and compulsion in community mental health care.

Luxembourg

Patients may be recalled if they don't abide to conditions on residence or medical supervision decided by a psychiatrist on discharge for 3 months after having been released from an involuntary commitment.[25]: 5.27 

North America

In the last decade of the 20th century and the first of the 21st, "outpatient commitment" laws were passed in a number of U.S. states and jurisdictions in Canada.[citation needed]

Canada

Map: implementation of community treatment orders in Canadian provinces and territories
CTO implementation in Canada (2013)

In the mid-1990s, Saskatchewan became the first Canadian province to implement community treatment orders, and Ontario followed in 2000.[4] As of January 2016,[update] New Brunswick was the only province without legislation that provided for either CTOs or extended leave.[4]

United States

AOT implementation in the United States (2013)

By the end of 2010,[update] 44 U.S. states had enacted some version of an outpatient commitment law. In some cases, passage of the laws followed widely publicized tragedies, such as the murders of Laura Wilcox and Kendra Webdale.[26][27]

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand introduced community treatment orders in the 1980s and 1990s.[3]

Australia

In the Australian state of Victoria, community treatment orders last for a maximum of twelve months[28] but can be renewed after review by a tribunal.[citation needed]

Controversy

Proponents have argued that outpatient commitment improves mental health, increases the effectiveness of treatment, lowers incidence of homelessness, arrest, incarceration and hospitalization and reduces costs. Opponents of outpatient commitment laws argue that they unnecessarily limit freedom, force people to ingest dangerous medications, impead on their human rights, or are applied with racial and socioeconomic biases.

Arguments for and proponents