Treatment Advocacy Center applauds passage of Virginia HB 2166
New state law is important step in prioritizing the health of individuals and families affected by severe mental illness
Treatment Advocacy Center applauds the passage of law HB 2166 on Feb. 22, 2021, a move that makes vital improvements and clarification to the state’s mandatory outpatient treatment (MOT) law.
As a part of a group of stakeholders who met to identify and detail recommendations for a new MOT law, Treatment Advocacy Center’s Acting Executive Director Lisa Dailey played an integral role in the passage of HB 2166, testifying before the Virginia Senate Joint Subcommittee to Study Mental Health Services in the 21st Century: Involuntary Commitment/Emergency Services Workgroup in December 2020. The final report from the MOT work group was released in June of 2020, and passage of HB 2166 is the first step in making the group’s recommendations a reality.
“I am proud to have advocated on behalf of Treatment Advocacy Center to support the strengthening of Virginia’s MOT law — a law that will save lives. Virginia is setting a great example by prioritizing the needs of individuals with severe mental illness, and I hope to see other states follow suit,” Dailey said.
Under the new law, an individual does not have to agree to enter into an MOT order and continue to remain in agreement in order to remain eligible for the law’s critical assistance. Virginia’s Community Service Board (CSB) staff and mental health advocates identified this prior requirement as a significant barrier to effective implementation of the law.
The new law also extends the duration of an initial order for MOT from a maximum of 90 days to 180 days, allowing for a longer period of stabilization prior to the need to return to court. The new MOT law was reorganized to be simpler in structure and easier to navigate. In addition to the reforms above, HB 2166:
- Clarifies and makes standard the criteria and process for direct (from the community) and step-down (following hospitalization) MOT
- Expressly authorizes special justices to hold status conferences in addition to review hearings, providing procedural guidance for both
- Empowers people under an MOT order to request review hearings
- Allows the individual, the petitioner, the provider, the health care agent or the guardian to seek review or enforcement of the order rather than only the CSB
- Excludes time spent hospitalized or incarcerated from the calculated period of time considered for eligibility
- Provides detail and guidance for the content of a mandatory outpatient treatment plan and clarifies the procedure for addressing non-adherence to treatment
- Changes the term “compliance” to “adherence to treatment” and directs that an individual’s advanced care directive and crisis plan be incorporated in the treatment plan whenever possible
Virginia’s original MOT law, developed in response to the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007, has been under-utilized in most regions of Virginia. The reform bill was the product of a multi-year stakeholder effort organized and facilitated by the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
The passage of HB 2166 is an enormous victory for individuals and families affected by severe mental illness. By making Virginia’s MOT law easier to implement and understand, more people are able to receive life-saving treatment in their own communities. The new law enables those requiring inpatient treatment to return to their communities quicker, which allows them to receive the support they need to avoid re-hospitalization and high-risk encounters with police.
To learn more about MOT, or assisted outpatient treatment, visit treatmentadvocacycenter.org/aot.
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The Treatment Advocacy Center is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness by promoting laws, policies and practices for the delivery of psychiatric care and supporting the development of innovative treatments for and research into the causes of severe and persistent psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.