RESEARCH WEEKLY: Looking Back on 2019
The Office of Research and Public Affairs (ORPA) is now going into its fifth year. Since its inception, ORPA has produced original research on the role and impact of serious mental illness on public service systems, including the role of mental illness in fatal law enforcement encounters and the dwindling supply of civil and forensic hospital beds. Also central to its mission is filling the informational void around severe mental illness by making relevant research accessible to family members, policymakers, clinicians, media, and the general public.
Below are a few key ORPA highlights from 2019:
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Assisted outpatient treatment in California – The first ORPA report of 2019, A Promising Start, analyzed publicly available information on the implementation of Laura’s Law, California’s form of assisted outpatient treatment. The report found that only 39 of California’s 58 counties have implemented Laura’s Law. Although the majority of county programs reported improved outcomes after implementing the program, our analysis found that the partial implementation of programs continues to underserve the population it was created to help.
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Law enforcement’s role in psychiatric crisis response – In May, ORPA released its original research that investigated the outsized role law enforcement plays in psychiatric crisis response and transport, titled Road Runners. Although members of law enforcement do not serve as treatment providers for any other illness, they have become “road runners,” responding to mental health emergencies and traveling long distances to shuttle people with mental illness from one facility to another. Road Runners provides a unique glimpse into the burdens law enforcement departments must shoulder as well as the fiscal and societal implications of the current situation.
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Psychiatric boarding in emergency departments – People with serious mental illness are disproportionately impacted by long wait times in emergency departments, a phenomenon known as “boarding.” Something very familiar to family members with loved ones with severe mental illness, ORPA released an evidence brief on the topic last month, titled Delayed and Deteriorating. The evidence presented shows that serious mental illness is a significant contributor to emergency department boarding, and any solutions to combat psychiatric boarding must address treatment gaps for individuals suffering from these conditions.
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Research Weekly – ORPA monitors the scientific and academic literature base on serious mental illness and translates the most relevant and interesting findings into weekly summaries for our followers. This unique service is a core value of ORPA’s mission and the most important work that we do. If you are reading this online, you can subscribe, here, to receive Research Weekly directly in your email inbox as soon as it is released.
Lastly, the Treatment Advocacy Center has submitted a public comment to the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) five-year strategic plan and urges you to do the same. Your feedback will be valuable in encouraging the NIMH to prioritize research into new treatments for serious mental illness.
Thank you for your continuous support of ORPA and the Treatment Advocacy Center.
Sending you the warmest wishes in the new year ahead.
