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Myth:
Assisted Outpatient Treatment does not work.
REALITY: 10 years of studies in NY (5-year Bellevue
pilot study plus 5 year Kendra’s Law) show AOT works.
Of 14 studies to date across the country, almost all showed
benefits that include reduced hospital stays, violence
and arrests, and improved chances of recovery.
Under AOT:
*
74 percent fewer experienced homelessness;
* 77 percent fewer experienced psychiatric hospitalization;
* 83 percent fewer experienced arrest; and
• 87 percent fewer experienced incarceration.
Myth:
AOT is Unconstitutional.
REALITY: Kendra’s Law has been challenged
twice in NY and found constitutional unanimously by the
state’s highest court. Forty-two states and the
District of Columbia have AOT laws.
Myth:
AOT infringes on civil liberties.
REALITY: AOT cuts the need for incarceration,
restraints, and involuntary inpatient commitment, allowing
individuals to retain more of their civil liberties.
Myth:
If we had more community treatment, we wouldn’t
need Assisted Treatment.
REALITY: Assisted Treatment is not an alternative
to community treatment; it is a way to see that community
treatments are utilized by those who may lack insight
into their illness and reject treatment, even when available.
Myth:
“Consumers" oppose Assisted Treatment.
REALITY: According to Office of Mental Health
Final Report on Kendra’s Law, AOT recipients overwhelmingly
endorsed the effect of the program on their lives:
*75 percent reported that AOT helped them gain control
over their lives;
*81 percent said that AOT helped them to get and stay
well;
*90 percent said AOT made them more likely to keep appointments
and take medication.
Myth:
Assisted Outpatient Treatment discriminates based on race
REALITY: AOT reflects a trend in community services.
According to OMH, while 63% of all New Yorkers in AOT
are people of color, 72% of all New Yorkers who receive
community case management services are people of color.
Because of AOT, African Americans and Hispanics are getting
access to housing, case management, day treatment and
other services that were previously unavailable to them.
MYTH:
The studies do not show that court orders confer any benefits
beyond those gained from increased services.
REALITY: A Duke University study specifically
examined this. "[O]ur study tested the net effect
of outpatient commitment as well as the complementary
role of intensive services delivery. We found that subjects
who were high-intensity service users without outpatient
commitment had no better outcomes than their counterparts
who received infrequent services or no services at all.
Clearly, the court order added something."
Misleading:
Voluntary programs are better than involuntary ones.
REALITY: This is true, but assisted treatment
is preferable to no treatment at all. The only individuals
subject to Assisted Treatment are those who fail to participate
in voluntary services because the severity of their illness
impairs their ability to make rational decisions. Even
with Assisted Treatment, individuals are free to voluntarily
participate in services.
Misleading:
Persons with mental illness are no more potentially violent
than the general population
REALITY: This is true, except when persons with
a serious mental illness do not take their medications
and have co-occurring substance abuse problems –
Those are the persons who are served by AOT.
Myth:
Assisted Outpatient Treatment hurts the mental health
system.
REALITY: Before Kendra’s Law, providers
picked and chose the easiest-to-treat, least-ill patients
for their programs. Under Kendra’s Law, the most
severely disabled are given priority. Kendra’s Law
helps the mental health system by forcing it to focus
on the most severely disabled. In addition, the OMH Final
Report states that Kendra’s Law has helped to improve
accountability, access to services, planning and coordination
of services throughout the mental health system.
Myth:
There is wide opposition to Kendra’s Law
REALITY: In addition to being supported by those
who have experienced it, Kendra’s Law is supported
by Governor Pataki and Attorney General Spitzer, both
of whom have introduced bills that would make the law
permanent. It is supported by the Office of Mental Health
and mainstream advocacy organizations such at the state
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, NAMI-NYC Metro,
the state Mental Health Association, the Mental Health
Issues Committee of the New York State Bar Association
and the Treatment Advocacy Center. It has been supported
by the liberal New York Times and Newsday; as well as
the conservative New York Post and Daily News and community
safety groups like the Victims Services Agency.
For
more information, call NAMI-NYS at 1-800-950-3228
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