New York, NY – The State of New York
must protect its citizens who suffer from severe mental illnesses and the communities in
which they live by "joining 38 other states across the country that have made
outpatient commitment available to people with brain diseases like schizophrenia,"
Treatment Advocacy Center Board Member DJ Jaffe told the NYC Department of Mental Health
today at a hearing on the effectiveness of outpatient civil commitment programs.
Testifying before the City agencies that will make recommendations to the State
Legislature about the future of outpatient civil commitment in New York, Jaffe, who also
serves as coordinator for the NY Treatment Advocacy Coalition, said, "Outpatient
commitment helps control the symptoms that cause people with these illnesses to become
homeless, suicidal, incarcerated and violent. It would help the Larry Hoags and Keven
Cerbellises of the world, while simultaneously keeping communities safer. Outpatient
commitment is humane, cost-effective and practical."
A study released last week of the Bellevue outpatient commitment program, prepared for
DMHMRAS by Policy Research Associates, revealed that individuals who received court
ordered treatment in addition to enhanced community services spent 57 percent less time in
psychiatric hospitals than individuals who received only enhanced services. Individuals
who had both court ordered treatment and enhanced services spent only six weeks in the
hospital, compared to 14 weeks for those who did not receive court orders.
"New York is one of the last states to implement outpatient commitment even though
it repeatedly has been shown to be effective in other states," said Mary Zdanowicz,
Executive Director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. In Washington, D.C., for example,
admissions decreased from 1.81 per year to 0.95 per year before and after outpatient
commitment; in Ohio the decrease was from 1.5 to 0.4; and in Iowa from 1.3 to 0.3. In
North Carolina, admissions for patients on outpatient commitment decreased from 3.7 to 0.7
per 1,000 days. Another study in North Carolina demonstrated fewer psychiatric admissions
and shorter lengths of stay for patients who received case management services enhanced by
a court order (admissions - 0.34 per patient and length of stay 6.9 days) than for
individuals who received case management without a court order (admissions 1.23 per
patient and length of stay 20.1 days). "We believe the overall success of the
Bellevue program in reducing the rates of rehospitalization and length of hospital stays
warrants expanding outpatient commitment throughout New York," said Zdanowicz.
"We prevent people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease from living on the
streets because we understand they have a brain disorder that prevents them from
sufficiently caring for themselves," concluded Jaffe. "We mandate assisted
treatment for individuals with tuberculosis who refuse to take medication because we
understand they are potentially dangerous to other people. People suffering from the
debilitating effects of neurobiological brain disorders deserve no less. It’s time
for New York to join 76 percent of the nation, and implement outpatient commitment
programs that will enable thousands of New Yorkers once held hostage by their disease to
escape their symptoms and enjoy real recovery."
