§290aa–17 Assisted Outpatient Treatment Grant Program for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness

Summary

HHS must set up a grant program to fund assisted outpatient treatment for people with serious mental illness. The program can give no more than 50 grants each year. HHS must work with the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, the Attorney General, the Administrator of the Administration for Community Living, and the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Grants may only go to applicants that have not run an assisted outpatient treatment program before. Applicants will be judged on how well their plan could cut hospitalization, homelessness, incarceration, and criminal-justice contact while improving patients’ health and social outcomes. Funded programs must assess patients’ medical and social needs; write and carry out treatment plans that say when court-ordered treatment ends and how compliance (including medication) will be checked; provide case management and referrals; review how the program is working under patient needs and State law; and track outcomes like incarceration, health care use, and homelessness. By the end of fiscal year 2023, and every two years after, HHS must report to Congress on the program. Reports must cover cost savings and public health results (including mortality, suicide, substance abuse, hospitalization, and service use), incarceration and homelessness rates, patient and family satisfaction, and participant demographics versus the grantee’s population. Each grant may be up to $1,000,000 for fiscal years 2023–2027. Up to $22,000,000 is authorized each year for fiscal years 2023–2027. Defined terms: assisted outpatient treatment — prescribed mental health care in the community ordered under State or local court law; eligible entity — a county, city, mental health system, mental health court, or other State-authorized group that can run such programs; Secretary — Secretary of Health and Human Services.