Study describes Washington, DC's court-linked outpatient competence restoration program and its first outcomes
The authors described the model used by the District of Columbia's outpatient competence restoration program, which serves defendants in the Superior Court system through the city's behavioral health department. The authors reported that over the preceding four years the program restored 55 of 170 participants, 32 percent, with an average of about 35 referrals a year.
The paper argues that most restored participants were restored after the initial 45-day period, suggesting the program could identify an optimal length of time to restoration. The population studied was mostly African-American men in their early 40s facing misdemeanor charges.
Because community-based restoration is widely promoted as an alternative to hospital beds and jail waits, outcome data from a long-running urban program is useful context for the field.
Source: Outpatient competence restoration: A model and outcomes — World Journal of Psychiatry, by Nicole R Johnson and Philip J Candilis
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