AOT - a compassionate outreach

I am advocating for changes to our treatment laws in Pennsylvania for those with a severe mental illness and lack of insight into the need to seek or remain in treatment. Although many advocate for changes to treatment laws due to violent incidents that can occur with untreated mental illness and those stories are the ones that we most often see in the media, that is not what brought me to advocate for changes in my state.

My main concern for my daughter when she stopped taking the medications that helped keep the voices under control was that when she wandered off at the suggestion of those voices, she would put herself in too dangerous a situation, and would be victimized. A friend of mine whose daughter wandered off when not taking medications ended up in jail, with a charge of robbery, because she tried to get money from a drug store, even though she had a bank account that she could have accessed. She wasn't thinking clearly and she shouldn't be incarcerated now in order to finally receive the treatment she needed but lacked the insight to request.

Vermont is another state looking into changes for their treatment laws. An article in the Times Argus, "Involuntary medication acts to divide" simplifies the delay of taking medications by stating that people would be eligible for voluntary commitments simply because they don't "comply with a doctor's treatment plan within a week."

Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) laws such as Kendra's Law in New York, (which is also the law that PA's proposed SB 226 is modeled after) have much more stringent criteria before someone would be required to remain in treatment, including a history of hospitalizations or incarcerations.

AOT laws are compassionate outreach programs designed to help someone regain the ability to take control of their own treatments. Without timely intervention, then the chances of homelessness, incarcerations, victiminizations, and yes, sometimes violence are increased significantly.

Preventive, timely treatment for those with mental illness and lack of insight is just common sense and shouldn't be a divisive issue.