Starks Sarah L, Kelly Erin L, Castillo Enrico G, Meldrum Marcia L, Bourgois Philippe, Braslow Joel T
Center for Social Medicine and Humanities, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California.
Res Soc Work Pract. 2022 Oct;32(7):839-854. doi: 10.1177/1049731520949918. Epub 2020 Aug 27.
Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) programs can compel treatment-refusing individuals to participate in mental health treatment via civil court order. In California's AOT programs, individuals first must be offered 30 days of outreach services and can accept services voluntarily. This study examines the use of outreach strategies in an AOT program with the potential for voluntary or involuntary enrollment.
Outreach staff completed a survey in which they reported and rated outreach strategies and barriers to treatment for 487 AOT-referred individuals.
Outreach staff reported using a broad array of strategies to persuade and engage clients. Supportive and persuasive strategies were most common. More coercive strategies, including court order, were used when needed. More clients enrolled voluntarily (39.4%) than involuntarily (7.2%).
Outreach, coupled with the strategic used of potential court involvement, can lead to voluntary enrollment of treatment-refusing individuals with many, often severe, barriers to engaging in outpatient treatment.
辅助门诊治疗（AOT）项目可通过民事法庭命令迫使拒绝治疗的个体接受心理健康治疗。在加利福尼亚州的AOT项目中，个体首先必须获得30天的外展服务，并且可以自愿接受服务。本研究考察了一个AOT项目中外展策略的使用情况，该项目具有自愿或非自愿纳入的可能性。
外展工作人员完成了一项调查，在调查中他们报告并对487名被转介到AOT的个体的外展策略和治疗障碍进行了评分。
外展工作人员报告称使用了多种策略来说服和吸引客户。支持性和说服性策略最为常见。在必要时会使用包括法庭命令在内的更具强制性的策略。自愿纳入的客户（39.4%）比非自愿纳入的客户（7.2%）更多。
外展服务，再加上战略性地利用可能涉及法庭的手段，可促使有诸多往往严重的障碍而拒绝接受门诊治疗的个体自愿接受治疗。
