Judge Milton Mack

I might get attempts any minute now from Senator Hurtado telling me we got them all done.

The bills I had introduced expand mediation so that providers of care will have a better option.

The providers of care don't like to petition their clients for treatment.

They'll certainly take advantage of mediation.

They'll see if their client is beginning to decompensate.

And before it gets too bad, it's going to get mediation.

We are trying to make the process work better.

So we still have some blockages.

For example, if I want someone to get outpatient treatment only, I have to have a psychiatrist testify.

If I want them to be hospitalized, a psychologist can testify.

To me, it would seem that the higher-ranking medical person ought to be talking about hospitalization.

and a lower echelon person talking about outpatient treatment.

There's been tremendous resistance to these outpatient treatment orders.

What did you think was going to happen when you emptied the hospitals?

What are you going to do with individuals who had to be hospitalized before?

Let's give you a comparison.

New York State is where Kendra's Law was adopted.

And that's where in 1999 they started the idea of assisted outpatient treatment.

So New York State right now has about 2,500 people on AOT with a population of 20 million.

In Michigan, Genesee County, with a population of 400,000, has about 800 people on AOT orders.