Dr. Swanson and Colleagues Reply

摘要

We appreciate Dr. Berkeley's thoughtful letter to the Editor regarding our article. As Dr. Berkeley correctly implies, the legislative intent of outpatient commitment and similar laws is not to authorize punitive interventions or coercion per se. Rather, it is to provide needed mental health services to certain severely mentally ill individuals who may otherwise go untreated to their detriment and that of the community. For example, New York's assisted outpatient treatment law (also known as Kendra's Law) requires the state to provide case management services and, more specifically, to "evaluate the conditions or needs of assisted outpatients, to take appropriate steps to address the needs of such individuals, and to ensure compliance with court orders (1)."