Update on Pennsylvania Assisted Outpatient Treatment Advocacy Effort

The advocacy effort in Pennsylvania to amend the outdated Mental Health Procedures Act of 1976 through assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) legislation has continued since my last post almost a year ago.

As the lead person of the PA Treatment Law Advocacy Effort in our state, I've decided to re-start this blog site and hope you will become involved in this important discussion on an issue that touches the lives of so many people with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar, especially when they have anosognosia or lack of insight and do not seek or remain in treatment. The struggles of those with untreated mental illness also reaches their families and friends who love them but are not able to help because of outdated treatment laws that prevent their loved-ones from receiving timely, effective treatment unless they have reached a level of "clear and present danger to self or others."

Information regarding many of the issues that I mention today and in future posts can be found on the side bar of this page, under "Valuable Resources and Information," including links to the AOT legislation. Currently, there are two proposed AOT bills in Pennsylvania, both a Senate and House bill that are identical.

· SB 251 replaces the previous bill listed on this blog site, SB 226, and both were sponsored by State Senator Stewart Greenleaf. SB 251 currently resides in the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee.
· HB 2186 was proposed this year by House Representative Mario Scavello and it resides in the House Health and Human Services Committee.

As NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) members know, this national organization supports AOT as stated in their Public Policy Platform, "Court-ordered outpatient treatment should be considered as a less restrictive, more beneficial, and less costly treatment alternative to involuntary inpatient treatment."

The NAMI PA state organization also endorses SB 251 and HB 2186 as well as six NAMI PA Chapters who have each signed individual resolutions in support of this legislation. You can find their resolutions of support on the Treatment Advocacy Center's PA web site on the left column, as well as endorsements for the legislation from various newspapers in our state.

My goal is to post new updates at least once or twice a week. However, even more importantly, I hope to hear from you since the only real way to improve services and treatment for individuals with severe mental illness who often are neglected and do not receive help is by understanding why assisted outpatient treatment is beneficial and advocating together for needed changes.