Changing a state mental health system through litigation: the Arizona experiment
- 1 December 1986
- journal article
- Published by American Psychiatric Association Publishing in American Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 143 (12) , 1575-1579
- https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.143.12.1575
Abstract
Litigation may be a viable means to change mental health systems for the chronically mentally ill. Court orders achieved in the 1970s have been ignored or proven inefficient over the years. However, in Arizona, a strategy was designed by a team of lawyers and psychiatrists to deal with failures seen elsewhere in court actions seeking adequate services for chronically mentally ill patients. This novel approach produced a favorable court outcome and triggered a chain reaction at the executive and legislative levels to reform radically the system of care for the chronically mentally ill in Arizona.Keywords
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