Civil Commitment and the Mental Health Care Continuum: Historical Trends and Principles for Law and Practice

civil-commitment-continuum-of-care.pdf

Civil Commitment and the Mental Health Care Continuum: Historical Trends and Principles for Law and Practice

SAMHSA recently released Civil Commitment and the Mental Health Care Continuum: Historical Trends and Principles for Law and Practice in its Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center. Involuntary civil commitment in the United States is a legal intervention by which a judge, or someone acting in a judicial capacity, may order that a person with symptoms of a serious mental disorder, and meeting other specified criteria, be treated in a psychiatric hospital or receive supervised outpatient treatment for some period of time.