Commitment of the mentally ill to outpatient treatment.

Outpatient commitment is examined in order to determine what types of civil commitment respondents are ordered to outpatient treatment. The sample consisted of 1226 adult civil commitment respondents having initial hearings in North Carolina. Respondents placed on outpatient commitment are compared with respondents who were released and respondents who were committed to the hospital. Respondents ordered to outpatient commitment are significantly more likely to be of the chronic, revolving door population of mental patients. Potential problems in evaluating the success of outpatient commitment are discussed.