MHLAC Opposes
Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (IOC)
Once again, there is a strong drive to push the Massachusetts legislature to enact a bill that would allow courts to order people to engage in “treatment,” which means drug therapy primarily. As in many years past, MHLAC opposes this move. See a white paper setting out why Involuntary Outpatient Commitment is bad public policy, a fact sheet about the bill, and a letter to the editor criticizing an OpEd piece from an IOC proponent that appeared in the Boston Globe. See our testimony to the Judiciary Committee from prior years at the last link below:
- White paper: Why IOC is bad public policy
- Fact sheet about bill / second fact sheet
- Wildflower Alliance’s first IOC fact sheet / second IOC fact sheet
- Roots Up Advocacy on IOC
- Letter to the editor
2025-2026 Session Testimony Opposing IOC
Harvey Rosenthal, CEO of Alliance for Rights and Recovery
Kim T. Mueser, PhD, Professor of Boston University
Kathleen M. Flaherty, Executive Director of Connecticut Legal Rights Project, Inc.
Philip T. Yanos, PhD, The City University of New York
Mark Ragins, MD, Community Psychiatrist
Danna Mauch, PhD, President and CEO, Massachusetts Association for Mental Health
Jennifer Honig, JD, Director of Law and Policy, Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee
Howard D. Trachtman, Mental Health Advocate
Monica Luke, Mental Health Advocate
Rae Simpson, Mental Health Advocate
Russell Stence, Mental Health Advocate
Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD, President of Board of National Empowerment Center, Inc.
Yulia Mikhailova, Mental Health Advocate, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Lisa Cosgrove, PhD, University of Massachusetts
Fern Fairchild, Director of Wild Ivy Social Justice Network, Wildflower Alliance
2023-2024 Session Testimony of MHLAC and community advocates opposing IOC