[1] It grants judges the authority to issue orders that require people who meet certain criteria to regularly undergo psychiatric treatment.
The members of NAMI, working with NYS Assemblywoman Elizabeth Connelly, NYC Department of Mental Health Commissioner Luis Marcos, and Howard Telson were successful in getting a three-year pilot commitment program started at Bellevue Hospital.
[3] When the Bellevue Outpatient Commitment Program came to an end, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Treatment Advocacy Center and mental health advocate DJ Jaffe put together a coalition to pass a statewide law.
In one assault in the New York City Subway, Andrew Goldstein, 29 and diagnosed with schizophrenia but off medication, pushed Kendra Webdale into the path of an oncoming N train at the 23rd Street station.
[9] Subsequently, in a similar incident, Julio Perez, age 43, pushed Edgar Rivera in front of an uptown 6 train at 51st Street.
[13] Kendra's Law allows courts to order certain people diagnosed with mental illness to attend treatment as a condition for living in the community.
The law is aimed at those who have a pattern of not following treatment recommendations which has resulted in hospitalization, or violent behaviors placing the patient or others as serious risk of physical harm.
[14] The New York Times reported that "a study has found that a controversial program that orders these patients to receive treatment when they are not hospitalized has had positive results.
In addition, the New York Times reported on Kendra's Law: the "program that orders these patients to receive treatment when they are not hospitalized has had positive results.
"[16] Kendra's Law is opposed for different reasons by many groups, most notably the anti-psychiatry movement and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
[20][21] A 2017 Cochrane systematic review of the literature, that included three relatively small randomized controlled trials, did not find significant differences in the use of services, social functioning, or quality of life when comparing compulsory community treatment with standard voluntary care or brief supervised discharge.
[22] A randomized, controlled trial published in the Lancet concluded, "the imposition of compulsory supervision does not reduce the rate of readmission of psychotic patients.
Community awareness of AOT has resulted in increased outreach to individuals who had previously presented engagement challenges to mental health service providers."
Processes and structures developed for AOT have resulted in improvements to treatment plans that more appropriately match the needs of individuals who have had difficulties using mental health services in the past."
As AOT processes have matured, professionals from the two systems have improved their working relationships, resulting in greater efficiencies, and ultimately, the conservation of judicial, clinical, and administrative resources."
A 2009 study, New York State Assisted Outpatient Treatment Evaluation done by Duke University, Policy Research Associates, University of Virginia, concluded that New York State's program had the following effects on the mental health system: improves a range of important outcomes for its recipients, apparently without feared negative consequences to recipients.
"[27][28] One study found that Kendra's Law has lowered the risk of violent behaviors, reduced thoughts about suicide, and enhanced capacity to function despite problems with mental illness.
Analysis of data from case manager reports showed similar reductions in hospital admissions and improved engagement in services.
"When the court order was for seven months or more, improved medication possession rates and reduced hospitalization outcomes were sustained even when the former AOT recipients were no longer receiving intensive case coordination services.
[38] In February 2021, Governor Cuomo suggested that state lawmakers should revisit or expand Kendra's law, after New York City experienced a spate of violent attacks committed by people with untreated mental illness.