Commitment to outpatient treatment: a national survey.

State mental health directors and state attorneys general were surveyed on the use of outpatient commitment in their states. The survey found considerable disagreement between the two groups on responses to several of the items, including whether outpatient commitment was even permitted in their states. The responses also indicated that two-thirds of the jurisdictions that permit outpatient commitment use it as an alternative to inpatient commitment in fewer than 5 percent of commitments. The author concludes that unless states obtain more input from both inpatient and outpatient clinicians in devising procedures for outpatient commitment, it will continue to be underutilized and ineffective.