- AOT Champions
- Identifying Key Stakeholders
- Convening a Meeting of the Stakeholders
- Engaging the Media
- AOT Planning Committee Process
Identifying Key Stakeholders
Launching an AOT program begins with bringing together key leaders of the treatment system, the court, the mental health advocacy community and other stakeholders with knowledge of the community and its existing resources and challenges. The purpose of the initial meeting is to secure buy-in from each of them to explore the feasibility of establishing a program in the community. At a minimum, these leaders include:
- Public mental health authority administrator
- Civil court judge or magistrate
- Mental health professionals representing community-based, inpatient and psychiatric crisis services
- District Attorney/Prosecutor
- Public Defender
- Sheriff and/or Police Chief
- Mental health advocacy organization director
Each of these stakeholders represents a link in the chain of a well-functioning AOT program. Their buy-in is crucial.
Skeptical or lukewarm initial reactions from necessary partners should be expected when marshalling support for an AOT program. Sometimes these reactions are rooted in misinformation or misunderstanding of what AOT involves; other times, the underlying issue may be institutional inertia – a reflexive resistance to change within entrenched systems. Whatever the root causes of the initial doubts about AOT, a determined champion must never be too quick to give up. Minds can be changed through determined advocacy.