Rose covers disability and mental health, and she helps write STAT’s daily Morning Rounds newsletter . In the last three decades, as involuntary outpatient treatment for people with serious mental health conditions like schizophrenia have expanded to almost every state, the evidence for these programs’ efficacy has remained murky. A new evaluation of New York’s involuntary outpatient treatment program adds another wrinkle to the complex existing scientific literature on this type of care. Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) reduced hospitalizations, arrests, and more. So did voluntary treatment.