July 21st, 2008

In response to several major charges of corruption in two Pittsburgh-area mental health facilities, the state plans to bolster outpatient mental health services, and have courts order patients to receive more community mental health services, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Reports the Post-Gazette, the state also proposes to explore wider use of psychiatric advance directives, which “enable adults to appoint a representative to make mental health care decisions on their behalf and to make known their preferences about treatment options.’

…Officials also want to make broader use of ‘assertive outreach’ that works to keep people engaged in treatment. And they plan to develop an electronic system that makes critical information more readily available to case managers and ‘community treatment teams’ — mobile groups of mental health professionals that serve more vulnerable people living in the community.”