Outpatient commitment

Outpatient commitment (more commonly known as Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) refers to state mental health laws that create civil court procedure wherein a judge orders a person with severe mental illness to adhere to an outpatient treatment plan designed to prevent relapse and dangerous deterioration. Assisted Outpatient Commitment allows the assisted involuntary treatment of individuals diagnosed with severe mental disorders who are living in the community and experiencing a mental illness crisis that requires intervention to prevent further deterioration that is harmful to themselves or others, rather than detained in hospital or incarcerated. The individual may be subject to rapid recall to hospital, including medication over objection, if the conditions of the plan/order are broken, and the person's mental health deteriorates. This generally means taking psychiatric medication as directed and may also include attending appointments with a mental health professional, and sometimes even not to take non-prescribed illicit drugs and not associate with certain people or in certain places deemed to have been linked to a deterioration in mental health in that individual.