The goal is to ensure public safety and to make sure that those who need treatment receive it. Despite its wide use, involuntary treatment has been the most consistently debated issue in mental health law for the last 30 years. California may be considering a proposal to expand existing statutes to include involuntary outpatient treatment , in which a court orders an individual to comply with a specific outpatient treatment regimen. A RAND team led by Susan Ridgely reviewed the available studies, interviewed stakeholders in eight states, and analyzed administrative data on services provided by California's county mental health contract agencies. The attorneys, behavioral health officials, and psychiatrists who were interviewed support involuntary outpatient treatment as a way to make sure people get needed services, but many feel the services offered in their communities are inadequate for making involuntary outpatient treatment work.
Available data make it very difficult to estimate the law's potential effect in California.
The data suggest that a significant percentage of people with mental illness who need services aren't getting them, and those who do get very few. An evidence-based review is a scientific investigation that critically analyzes studies rather than simply reporting their findings. Priority was placed on reviewing states with outpatient treatment systems similar to California's. To gather information about how the laws had been implemented, the researchers also conducted interviews with prosecuting and defense attorneys, county behavioral health officials, and psychiatrists in these states. The interviews allowed the researchers to juxtapose actual experience with an analysis of statutory and case law in each state.