Assistive Outpatient Treatment

Louisiana’s Law for Assistive Outpatient Treatment  (Louisiana ACT 407) allows the director of a hospital, emergency receiving center or Regional / District Mental Health Director to petition the local court for involuntary outpatient treatment of certain individuals meeting the criteria established in law.  This court-ordered treatment is called assisted outpatient treatment.  This Assistive Outpatient Treatment Law is an important treatment tool that allows individuals, who due to the debilitating effects of their mental illness have a history of non-compliance with treatment, to be court ordered into outpatient treatment without ordering them into more restrictive inpatient care.

An individual may be placed in assistive outpatient treatment only if, after a hearing, the court finds that all of the following have been met. The individual must:

1. Be eighteen years of age or older,
2. suffer from a mental illness,
3. be unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision, based on a clinical determination,
4. have a history of lack of compliance with treatment from mental illness that has resulted in either of the following:
1. at least twice within the last thirty-six months, the lack of compliance with mental health treatment has been a significant factor resulting in an emergency certificate for hospitalization or receipt of services in a forensic or other mental health unit within a correctional setting, not including any period during which the person was hospitalized or incarcerated immediately preceding the filing of the petition  OR
2. one or more acts of serious violent behavior toward self or others or threats of, or attempts at, serious physical harm to self or others within the last thirty-six months as a result of mental illness, not including any period during which the person was hospitalized or incarcerated immediately preceding the filing of the petition.
5. As a result of his or her mental illness, is unlikely to voluntarily participate in the recommended treatment documented in the treatment plan.
6. In view of the individual’s treatment history and current behavior, there is a need for assistive outpatient treatment to prevent a  relapse or deterioration which would likely result in the individual becoming  dangerous to self or others.
7. It is likely that the individual will benefit from assistive outpatient treatment.

Contact the Louisiana Department of Health, Office of Behavioral Health designated Assistive Outpatient Treatment Coordinator in the region / district in which the individual resides for assistance.