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Involuntary Treatment Act Court: Reentry and Court Outcomes
July 9, 2019
This report expands the County’s knowledge of the people who go through the involuntary treatment process, what factors determine whether they return to the system, and what factors determine the outcomes they receive in court. In 2017, the court responded to more than 3,000 people’s mental health crises across more than 4,700 cases. The way King County approaches this process has the potential to impact the mental health of thousands of vulnerable people every year. To better understand the factors that the County can influence and inform upcoming system improvement efforts, we evaluated what factors may contribute to a person’s likelihood of having subsequent Involuntary Treatment Act Court cases and what factors contribute to different court outcomes. The things that were consistently related to people returning to the system included the person’s case history, race, and housing status, as well the final court order in their case, and the type of hospital that treated them.
Why This Analysis Matters
The Involuntary Treatment Act (ITA) Court system helps ensure the safety of people experiencing mental health crises as well as the King County community at large. If a person is experiencing a mental health crisis, the ITA system must decide whether the person is a danger to themself or others. This is in addition to balancing individual rights and determining if involuntary detention and treatment is justified.
How King County approaches this process has the potential to significantly impact the mental health of thousands of vulnerable people every year. In 2017, the ITA system served over 3,000 people across nearly 4,700 court cases. Overall, the number of ITA cases increased more than 20 percent between 2014 and 2017. This vital service impacts an increasing number of county residents during an extremely difficult time in their lives. This report expands the County’s knowledge of the people who go through the involuntary treatment process, what factors determine whether they return to the ITA system, and what factors determine the outcomes they receive in court. This report is meant to complement other ongoing County improvement efforts relating to ITA Court so that stakeholders can make informed and effective decisions as they make changes to the ITA system.
Our analysis connected Department of Judicial Administration data from over 17,000 cases filed between January 1, 2014 and October 31, 2018, with Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) data on demographics, and from hospitals stays, for over 11,000 different anonymized people who have been in the ITA system. By connecting multiple distinct data sources, we were able to analyze the factors that contribute to court outcomes and a person’s likelihood of returning to the ITA system. These factors included: personal characteristics such as prior case history and housing instability; hospital-level factors such as length of hospital stay and the hospital the person was held in; and court-level factors such as final court outcome and the use of case continuances. Connecting these data sources allowed us to assess not only who goes through the ITA system, but also who would be most likely to return to the ITA system in the future.