Involuntary outpatient commitment did not reduce hospital recidivism, though may for some patient subgroups

Can involuntary outpatient commitment reduce hospital recidivism?: Findings from a randomized trial with severely mentally ill individuals.

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of involuntary outpatient commitment in reducing rehospitalizations among individuals with severe mental illnesses. METHOD Subjects who were hospitalized involuntarily were randomly assigned to be released (N = 135) or to continue under outpatient commitment (N = 129) after hospital discharge and followed for 1 year. Each subj...

Effectiveness of involuntary outpatient commitment.

To the Editor: Having observed patient progress during conditional release (a form of involuntary outpatient commitment) and found the policy useful in protecting some individuals with serious mental illness, I anticipated positive results from the randomized clinical trial by Dr. Swartz et al. The investigators randomly assigned patients released from a mental hospital to one of two conditions...

Involuntary Outpatient Commitment: Current Evidence and Options

Involuntary outpatient commitment for the chronically mentally ill.

Racial disparities in involuntary outpatient commitment: are they real?

In this paper we explore racial disparities in outpatient civil commitment, using data from Kendra's Law in New York State. Overall, African Americans are more likely than whites to be involuntarily committed for outpatient psychiatric care in New York. However, candidates for outpatient commitment are largely drawn from a population in which blacks are overrepresented: psychiatric patients wit...