In June, the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) quietly finalized the independent evaluation of the state's assisted outpatient treatment program, also known as AOT or Kendra's Law.
State officials say the report shows the program works as intended. Researchers who authored the report, however, claim the state is misrepresenting their findings and downplaying the harms they uncovered in their two years of research.
A lead researcher on the project believes the state might be downplaying their research, in part, because the research team is largely composed of researchers with lived experience with mental health systems.
This week on the Disabilities Beat we provide a preview of our story diving into the results, methodology and representation of the report. You can read the full story by clicking here.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was produced by a contractor and may be updated over time to be more accurate.
Emyle Watkins:
Hi, I'm Emyle Watkins, and this is the Disabilities Beat.
In June, the New York State Office of Mental Health or OMH quietly finalized the independent evaluation of the state's assisted outpatient treatment program, also known as AOT or Kendra's Law. The controversial program allows adults with a history of non-compliance with mental health treatment to be court ordered to outpatient treatment. Here's Dr. Miriam Tupper, OMH's chief medical officer in an interview with BTPM from August 11th.
Dr. Miriam Tepper:
In looking at the quantitative data, we really feel like this report shows that the assisted outpatient treatment program is having just the kind of impact it was designed to.
Emyle Watkins:
However, researchers who authored the report claim the state is misrepresenting their findings and downplaying the harms they uncovered in their two years of research. Nev Jones, PhD, the evaluation co-lead and principal investigator of the University of Pittsburgh Path Lab, believes in part that the state may be downplaying their research because the research team is largely researchers with lived experience with mental health.
Nev Jones:
The harms are far from insignificant or trivial. These are very, very serious harms as people are experiencing them. And the argument then, the conclusion is that those harms absolutely need to be taken seriously.
Emyle Watkins:
The $1 million, 392-page report was required of OMH by the state legislature when the law was last renewed in 2022. The law was first passed in 1999 after the death of Kendra Webdale, a Western New York native who was pushed in front of a New York City subway car by a man with a history of mental health concerns. The report compares AOT to its voluntary sister program, assertive community treatment or ACT. The research found benefits for both groups from access to services provided by the programs.
Nev Jones:
Whether it's voluntary ACT or it's AOT, when people are connected with services that they want and need certain kinds of outcomes, absolutely improve.
Emyle Watkins:
We have a longer story on our website detailing the research team's results and methodologies, but in short, the evaluation combined quantitative, which uses numbers, and qualitative data, which uses interviews. The state's focus has largely been on the quantitative key outcomes, which evaluated measures like housing, employment, hospitalizations, and arrests. In 10 outcomes evaluated by the researchers using data, the AOT group had better outcomes in four areas, while the ACT group had better outcomes in two areas, and neither group did better in the final four outcomes.
Dr. Miriam Tepper:
In those areas that I just mentioned, the people receiving assisted outpatient treatment improved more than people receiving the voluntary services. And we take really that to mean that there are things about assisted outpatient treatment for this very small group of people who are eligible and appropriate that really provides a degree of a unique advantage.
Emyle Watkins:
Members of the research team argue statements about where AOT was more successful than ACT lacked nuanced or more careful disclosure of the in-depth findings of both the quantitative and qualitative data. They say their interviews with over 200 people in and around the AOT system, including 46 people under involuntary orders, help explain what numbers can't. Their interviews found concerns regarding coercion, fear, autonomy, understanding of the process and inconsistencies in implementation. However, while Dr. Tepper says these interviews have valuable themes, it can't represent the population.
Dr. Miriam Tepper:
The choice of how they gathered up the people that they interviewed was not designed to be representative of the population as a whole.
Emyle Watkins:
Jones feels people with mental health conditions being dismissed might be at the core of why OMH is portraying their research this way.
Nev Jones:
From inception, we ran into literal charges, expressed concerns, by the Office of Mental Health in New York that people with lived experience could not or would not conduct interviews, for example, in quote unquote unbiased ways.
Emyle Watkins:
Pitt’s Path Lab doesn't shy away from its commitment to lived experience and research. Jones has been open about her experiences as someone with schizophrenia. Jones also provided a letter to BTPM she claims supports her allegations. The letter from November 21st, 2025 was sent from the University of Pittsburgh Office of Research Protections to the organization that was contracted for the research. Path Lab was a subcontractor. The New York State Office of Mental Health declined to comment on this story. The full version of this story is on our website today at btpm.org. I'm Emyle Watkins. Thanks for listening.
