Changing a state mental health system through litigation: the Arizona experiment.

Litigation may be a viable means to change mental health systems for the chronically mentally ill. Court orders achieved in the 1970s have been ignored or proven inefficient over the years. However, in Arizona, a strategy was designed by a team of lawyers and psychiatrists to deal with failures seen elsewhere in court actions seeking adequate services for chronically mentally ill patients. This novel approach produced a favorable court outcome and triggered a chain reaction at the executive and legislative levels to reform radically the system of care for the chronically mentally ill in Arizona.