Why don people with severe mental illnesses get treatment in psychiatric facilities?
Beginning in 1955 with the widespread introduction of the first, effective antipsychotic medication chlorpromazine, or Thorazine, the stage was set for moving patients out of hospital settings. The pace of deinstitutionalization accelerated significantly following the enactment of Medicaid and Medicare a decade later. There was a wholesale emptying of state psychiatric hospitals in the mid-1960s and another wave of discharges in the early 1990s. Few beds remain, the waiting lists are long – that is why we need another solution for people who are able to receive treatment on an outpatient basis. Will assisted outpatient treatment fill up hospitals with people with mental illness? No. Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) is designed to help people function successfully out of the hospital. It helps those with a history of noncompliance with medications to adhere to a treatment plan and helps prevent them from decompensating and becoming rehospitalized. For example, participants in New Yor
