STAT (9/13) carried an opinion piece by DJ Jaffe, executive director of Mental Illness Policy Org., who argues for greater utilization of assisted outpatient treatment. Jaffe wrote, “the most important and compassionate change the Trump administration and the federal government can make is to increase the number of psychiatric beds available to those who need them.” Furthermore, Jaffe advocates for eliminating Medicaid’s Institutes for Mental Disease exclusion, which “creates a financial incentive for states to deny hospital admission to people with serious mental illness, discharge them before they are ready, and close psychiatric hospital beds.” Jaffe adds that “extensive research shows that assisted outpatient treatment reduces homelessness, arrest, incarceration, and hospitalization by 70% or so and cuts costs to taxpayers by 50%,” and “is widely supported by advocates for the seriously mentally ill.” Assisted outpatient treatment “has been endorsed by the…American Psychiatric Association,” and other groups.
Related Links:
— “Wider use of assisted outpatient treatment could help individuals with mental illness, “DJ Jaffe, STAT, September 13, 2019