Update on Kendra's Law Case

[Anasazi23]

Court Overturns Schizophrenic's Conviction

Being in NY, I come in contact with this frequently. From the NY State Dept. of Mental Health:

Kendra's Law

"New York State has enacted legislation that provides for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) for certain people with mental illness who, in view of their treatment history and present circumstances, are unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision."

This allows us to have a team that visits the patient, if they're locatable, and encourage medication compliance. The system if flawed, of course, in that they cannot force a patient to take meds and because they are often unable to be found. It does open the door to having some leverage, however.

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[MJD503]

The law sounds like a step in the right direction, at least. Recognizing that mandated follow up is very important. Since I work in a state hospital, we have mannnny non-med compliant folks who quit meds ASAP once discharged. However, in most circumstances, once people reach the state level of inpatient care, we can mandate they enter a group home or other supervised setting to maintain compliance with medications BEFORE they leave our care. Now this doesn't work as well as it should given many factors. If someone doesn't want to take medications, it is pretty easy to quit, group home or not. Seemingly more could be done to follow up, make sure patients are continuing compliance and keep them on meds but where does a person even start to analyze such issues?

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Anasazi23]

This law has been in effect for quite a while. The above article is just an update on the court case that resulted in the AOT program. I find a similar pattern of noncompliance, even with AOT, that you do. It's relatively easy to skip out of tx if you try, even if the pt. is on AOT.

Decanoate shots are underused, and there needs to be a larger variety of them.

 

[MBK2003]

Decanoate shots are underused, and there needs to be a larger variety of them.

It doesn't help that NY Medicaid doesn't pay for Risperdal Consta either.

I've gotta say, in my experience, depot Naltrexone and the still in development cocaine vaccine would go a long way towards improving compliance in our population of frequent fliers. Additional ACT (assertive community treatment) teams with MICA focus would also help. And finally, what the drug companies could make a mint on if they could develop it - DEPOT INSIGHT. Just think about all the manic bipolars who stopped lithium because "I wasn't depressed anymore doc, nothing's wrong with me, it's you, you who want to keep the man down."

 

[OldPsychDoc]

It doesn't help that NY Medicaid doesn't pay for Risperdal Consta either.

I've gotta say, in my experience, depot Naltrexone and the still in development cocaine vaccine would go a long way towards improving compliance in our population of frequent fliers. Additional ACT (assertive community treatment) teams with MICA focus would also help. And finally, what the drug companies could make a mint on if they could develop it - DEPOT INSIGHT. Just think about all the manic bipolars who stopped lithium because "I wasn't depressed anymore doc, nothing's wrong with me, it's you, you who want to keep the man down."

God forbid! If this were developed, we really WILL be out of jobs, psychologist-prescribing or not!

 

[Anasazi23]

It doesn't help that NY Medicaid doesn't pay for Risperdal Consta either.

The rep says this is changing very soon. Let's keep our fingers crossed.