We refer to those who mobilize support for assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) in their communities as AOT Champions. An AOT Champion might be a judge, mental health professional, attorney, family member, community activist, or anyone who believes those with untreated severe mental illness deserve better than the revolving door of hospitalization, incarceration, and homelessness.

AOT Champions are the driving force for AOT implementation. They are passionate about AOT, committed to developing a quality program, and don’t take no for an answer. They recruit, assemble, educate, and motivate local leaders to want what they want. They are well-versed on the benefits of an AOT program and can articulate them to others. Most importantly, they know how to ask for help when they need it. If you are an AOT Champion or aspire to be one, we can assist you!

The first step is to join Treatment Advocacy Center’s AOT Learning Network (AOTLN) – a resource to keep you engaged with your counterparts from across the United States and facilitate the sharing of great ideas and common concerns.

You can also use this link to contact the Treatment Advocacy Center’s AOT Implementation Department. Tell us a little about the challenges you face in getting AOT off the ground in your community. We would be more than happy to strategize with you, point you to helpful resources, and explore possibilities for TAC to assist you further.

Click on the boxes below for general guidance on the basics of championing AOT in your community.

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.

If you, yourself, are not in one of these key positions, it is essential that you recruit at least one person from the list above who is willing to lend their name to the convening of a meeting to discuss AOT. This may mean meeting individually with each person until you identify one who shares your view regarding the need for AOT. Be well-prepared for the meeting by reviewing the following information beforehand:

Also, you can print off and bring the following one-page documents which include highlights from these sources.

Once you have recruited your meeting convener, work with them to identify the meeting logistics. This will likely require careful planning to determine the most convenient time and location for the majority of the stakeholders. Send out the meeting invitation approximately three weeks before the meeting. Include a copy of the agenda and a list of the other invitees.

Be sure to include plenty of time on the agenda for a discussion of “Next Steps.” This is when key stakeholders should offer or be asked their position with regard to the idea of establishing an AOT program in the community. If the stakeholder is undecided, the facilitator should try to glean from them what additional information is needed so they can take a position. The meeting facilitator can be the convener, the AOT champion, a TAC representative or some combination.

If there is consensus among the stakeholders to advance the idea of establishing a program, the next step is to identify the AOT Planning Committee. While support of top organizational leadership is critical, some participants on the planning committee should be middle management staff more directly involved in the day-to-day functioning of the system. Although top leaders may know how things are supposed to work, those with direct supervisory roles know how things actually work, which is critical to inform the planning.

Ideally, the stakeholders will identify the Planning Committee members before the conclusion of the meeting, but this may not always be possible. At a minimum, be sure to identify who is responsible for following up with stakeholders and/or AOT Planning Committee members and organizing the first meeting of the AOT Planning Committee.

Engaging the media can be an effective way to raise awareness about AOT in the community and to maintain momentum during the implementation planning process.

Tips for pitching the media:

  • First and foremost, ask yourself: Is my story new and timely? Journalism has been described as a rough draft of history. Your pitch needs to be current.
  • Is your story relevant to the news cycle? The ideal time to pitch a story or op/ed is when you can add value to a national conversation.
  • Is there a character to care about? Journalists use many of the same techniques as novelists. They don’t write about abstractions. They write about people. So make sure your story features a sympathetic character.
  • Does it affect many people or have relevance to a large sector of the population?
  • Does it help solve a problem?
  • Is there tension, debate, or conflict?
  • Will it make people smarter?
  • Know the media outlet’s audience. An outlet that specializes in a particular topic (e.g. health) will have different ideas about what is newsworthy than a general-interest outlet will. Similarly, local and national media outlets have their own set of requirements for what is newsworthy.
  • Use compelling visuals — send high quality, high resolution photos (300 DPI or greater) with your pitch.
  • Create compelling subject lines when pitching by email. These days, reporters and editors are deluged with email pitches, as the press release has become virtually obsolete. Make yours stand out with a punchy subject line.
  • Follow up. If you don’t get a response to your email pitch within a few days, don’t be afraid to follow up by phone or again by email. Just be kind and remember that journalists are very busy.
  • Give plenty of lead time. If you’re pitching an event, the sweet spot for pitching is three weeks out from the event. Pitch too late and they may be out in the field reporting a different story or on deadline.

Go over the ground rules. Before any interview in which any degree of anonymity is expected, the ground rules need to be clearly established. The New York Times has a helpful primer on the different levels of anonymity that can be granted in an interview.

Once your AOT Planning Committee has been identified, congratulations! Move on to the “Start AOT in your Community” section of this website for helpful information on how to proceed.