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Advisory board hears update on Assisted Outpatient Treatment rollout and local readiness
Summary
The board received a briefing on Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) implementation: eligibility criteria, up-to-18-month orders, petitioner types, and plans for local coordination. Frontier Behavioral Health will monitor LRA orders and the region is participating in a learning collaborative to align processes.
Kayn (Kayen Roy) and Ashley McGee briefed members on Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT), an existing Washington statute-based court-ordered outpatient treatment program with recent updates and statewide implementation efforts.
"AOT is a court-ordered outpatient treatment...it has been in Washington statute since 2015," Kayn explained, describing eligibility (diagnosed behavioral health disorder, history of hospitalization or forensic involvement in the prior 36 months, or violent acts within 48 months) and noting that AOT orders may extend up to 18 months. Kayn said petitioners can include hospital directors, treatment providers, designated crisis responders and others.
Ashley said the BHASO has an AOT coordinator (John O'Neal) and that Frontier Behavioral Health will expand its monitoring role to include AOT oversight locally. The region is participating in a national learning collaborative to implement AOT and plans to convene MCOs, providers, courts and other stakeholders over the coming months to align processes and share information about conditional releases and monitoring.
Board members asked about choices for monitoring and revocation processes; staff explained monitoring is a nonclinical coordination role distinct from treatment providers and that DCRs usually handle revocation investigations, which can involve treatment providers, family members, and legal processes.
Why it matters: AOT implementation will introduce a new court-directed care pathway for some people with severe behavioral health disorders and will require coordination across courts, providers, DCRs and payers. The board will track implementation and convenings in the near term.
