ABSTRACT
This chapter examines into the ability of coerced community treatment to do as well as involuntary hospitalisation in treating mentally ill patients and in protecting the public with fewer restrictions on civil liberties. This chapter addresses the following question: can coerced community treatment maintain patients with mental illness safely in the community? Can community treatment orders engage persons with mental illness to provide them with treatment and care needed to avoid deterioration to dangerousness and eventual re-hospitalisation? Although reports from the Duke Mental Health Study indicate that outpatient commitment has positive results on all major outcomes, the study's limitations should be remembered. While the Duke Mental Health Study was still in the field collecting data, the New York Legislature authorised a three-year trial of outpatient commitment in New York City at Bellevue Hospital, and mandated evaluation of that trial. The experimental study found reduced violence, arrests, and victimisation.
