How to Advocate for AOT in Kentucky

We are advocating for a mental health law that prevents dangerousness, rather than requiring it—before medical care is provided! We are advocating for an Assisted Outpatient Treatment, (AOT) law that will reduce hospitalizations, incarcerations and death.

What can we advocate for and how?

•  Some state leaders will argue that AOT will cost too much money. They will warn us to not advocate for services that cannot be funded. Response: “Frequently, funds are already utilized for these individuals in the DOC or the justice system! Follow the patient and re-direct the funds for behavioral health care.”

• Review the recommendations issued by the Task Force on Violence and Mental Illness issued in the late 90’s and REJUVENATE HB 843 COMMISSION: This does not require legislative action, but advocacy to engage the Governor to call together the Statewide HB 843 Commission and urge active participation of all Cabinets, Departments and Divisions named in the statute, as well as representatives of consumers, family members and Regional Planning Councils.  Possible issues for study by the HB 843 Commission include: Integration of Physical and Behavioral Health; Pew Commission Recommendations on Corrections & Substance Abuse; Medicaid Cost Containment Recommendations, including possible expansion of managed care throughout the Commonwealth.

•  Advocate to shift funds from the Department of Justice to develop front-end diversion programs that send individuals with mental illness to treatment rather than jail. 

•  Mental health courts and re-entry services help the justice system allow humane treatment. Crises Intervention Training, (CIT) helps law enforcement make the right decisions before a person with mental illness ends up in jail or prison. Mobile outreach teams would help those who lack insight, are
too ill or not willing to seek out medical treatment without assistance.

•  Shift Medicaid dollars to include acute crisis units, used to divert people from of jails and state hospital.Legislative change is needed in KRS 202A to allow for outpatient civil commitment for: forensic clients and those who are repeatedly hospitalized and haven’t engaged in outpatient treatment.

• Encourage criminal justice and law enforcement professionals to advocate for system changes. History tells us that other states have been successful in stopping the revolving door when The Dept. of Corrections and Criminal Justice came together.  In Florida, a successful practice was established in
1998 called Partners in Crisis, This program works as a diversion from jail to treatment.

• Encourage KY leaders to adopt national policies that demonstrate what have been proven to be effective, such at AOT.  In 2012, the DOJ determined that AOT is an “effective,” evidence-based practice that "Works" to Prevent Crime and Violence.

 • Advocating to fund peer specialist, supportive employment, affordable housing, (evidence based practices)  ... will still NOT benefit individuals who lack insight (AH-no-sog-NO-sia) or who are trapped in the revolving door. Simply stated for some, "recovery" is NOT possible without AOT.

• With AOT, more individuals in Kentucky would be able to access a bridge to recovery. As advocates, we should support eliminating barriers that keep people from receiving the treatment needed to become productive citizens.

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The Change Mental Health Laws in Kentucky Project, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

Missing the Point About Aurora ~ Read the Facts

With so much speculation and media buzz about the gunman who shot innocent victims in a Colorado movie theater on July 20, 2012, syndicate columnists Mona Charen writes "Public discussion and debate about the Aurora, Colo., horror has missed the point."

Continue reading Mona's column here:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/mona-charen/missing-the-point-about-aurora.html

Read more on TAC's Blog here:http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/about-us/our-blog

Here are a few critical messages that need to be heard: 

• Severe mental illness is a treatable brain disease.
• Consequences follow when severe mental illness goes untreated: homelessness, criminalization of mental illness, suicide, violence, victimization and others.
• Nearly half of individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder suffer from anosognosia and are unable to recognize they need treatment. For them, intervention by others is crucial to arrest deterioration.
• The mental health delivery system is abandoning those with the most disabling mental illness by closing public psychiatric beds, failing to use proven interventions like assertive community treatment (ACT) and assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), and focusing almost exclusively on services that require people to be well enough to volunteer for care.
• Public policy needs to recognize these realities. 
• Policy makers must be held accountable when it does not.

Mental Illness Policy Org: James Holmes, Mental Illness, Colorado Shootings, ...

Mental Illness Policy Org: James Holmes, Mental Illness, Colorado Shootings, ...: Could James Holmes Be Seriously Mentally Ill? 

Sunday, July 22, 2012

It is too early to tell, but he could be. There are three reasons people do these things.

1. Lack of maturity (ex. desire to get attention or get back at someone); 
2. Political reasons (terrorism);
3. Their brain was malfunctioning due to mental illness.

Read the entire article here:http://mentalillnesspolicyorg.blogspot.com/2012/07/james-holmes-mental-illness-colorado.html 

or from National Review Online:http://web1.nationalreview.com/corner/310373/legal-system-can-t-handle-james-holmes-d-j-jaffe

Learn more
The relationship between untreated serious mental illness and violence
Noncompliance in people with serious mental illness

For more on mental illness and violence visit http://mentalillnesspolicy.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Mental Illness Policy.org is unbiased information on serious mental illness (not "mental health") for media and policymakers. Includes info on violence and mental illness, involuntary treatment, involuntary commitment, assisted outpatient treatment, AOT, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, NGRI

AOT Pilot Program In Knoxville, TN will save lives!

Knox pilot project to offer alternative to jailing or committing mentally ill

• By Kristi L. Nelson
• Knoxville News Sentinel
• Posted July 21, 2012 at 4 a.m.

 Read the entire article published in the Knoxville News Sentinel:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/jul/21/knox-pilot-project-to-offer-alternative-to-or/

NO ROOM AT THE INN Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals

No Room At The Inn
The number of public hospital beds for people in acute psychiatric crisis plunged in 2010 to levels not seen since 1850, exerting profound impacts on patients, law enforcement, jails, hospitals and public safety, according to a new study released today by the Treatment Advocacy Center.

“No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals” reports that state hospital bed numbers dropped 14% from 2005 to 2010, falling to 43,318 beds nationwide. This compares with 50,509 beds in 2005 and 558,922 in 1955, the peak year of psychiatric hospitalization before the trend known as “deinstitutionalization” began.

The Treatment Advocacy Center called for a moratorium on further public hospital bed closures until a sufficient number of psychiatric beds for acutely and/or chronically ill individuals is available, either in state hospitals or community facilities.
“The elimination of hospital beds for people who are psychotic or otherwise acutely or chronically disabled by severe mental illness endangers them and society at large,” said Doris A. Fuller, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center and a co-author of the study.

“These closures are creating enormous strains on law enforcement, jails, prisons and hospital ERs, where acutely ill people are essentially ‘re-institutionalized’–or left to live on the streets,” she said. “Wherever they are, they exist in an alternate reality that deprives them of the ability to participate in life as they could with treatment.”
Nationwide, only 14.1 public hospital beds remained for each 100,000 people by 2010, the latest year for which data is available. The bed population has not been this low since 1850, when it was 14.0. A minimum of 50 beds per 100,000 is a consensus target for providing minimally adequate treatment to the public.

Among other consequences, the study found a statistically significant inverse association between lower state-hospital spending and higher numbers of arrest-related deaths. States that closed more public psychiatric beds between 2005 and 2010 appeared to experience higher rates of violent crime in general and of aggravated assault in particular.

Thirteen states were found to have closed 25% of their psychiatric beds during the five-year period, with two states–New Mexico and Minnesota–eliminating more than half their public beds. After its most recent closures, Minnesota provided only 3.9 beds per 100,000 people.   

Ten states added beds but continued to offer less than half the number of beds considered necessary to provide minimally adequate psychiatric care. Nevada, for example, increased its bed population by 60% but still provided only 11.2 beds per 100,000 people.

State hospital beds are reserved primarily for individuals with acute or chronic severe mental illness who meetstate criteria for civil commitment. In most cases, they cannot seek treatment voluntarily because they do not recognize they are ill, a neurological condition known as “anosognosia.” In some states, public beds numbers are reduced further because many of those remaining are reserved for forensic patients who have committed crimes.

The Treatment Advocacy Center is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the elimination of legal and other barriers to the treatment of severe mental illness.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/7/prweb9703740.htm