LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A court-ordered treatment program for people with serious mental illness shows a reduction in arrests, psychiatric hospitalization and homelessness, according to testimony from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
In 2017, Kentucky lawmakers passed an assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) statute called “Tim’s Law.”
Under the program, a court can — under certain conditions — order someone with serious mental illness to follow a community-based treatment plan.
Patti Clark, director of the Division of Mental Health for the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, testified before lawmakers Thursday.
“It provides a less invasive intervention than psychiatric hospitalization and is designed to interrupt that repeated hospitalization, release and then decompensation back to the hospital cycle that we see among a small subset of these clients,” she said.
In 2020, Kentucky received a federal grant for an AOT pilot project operating in regions served by Central State Hospital and Western State Hospital. It will be expanded to the Eastern State Hospital region and Appalachian Regional Hospital with state general funds, according to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
According to Clark’s update, after six months of involvement, the program has shown an 86% reduction in inpatient hospitalization among clients, a 74% reduction in ER visits, a 57% reduction in nights in jail, a 40% reduction in arrests and homelessness and a 14.3% reduction in detoxification requirements.
“We also see improved quality of life among participants, with about 79% saying that their overall quality of life was significantly better from baseline to six months,” she said.
State Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville, said he was pleased by the information reported to the committee.
“This program gives people a second chance to address their mental health issues so they can get back into society to be productive individuals and provide … a better quality of life for themselves,” he said. “The wraparound services are significant and what we're seeing is a total upgrade or elevation of their quality of life, and that's what it's all about.”