About this toolkit

Welcome to the assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) toolkit, funded by Michigan’s Mental Health Diversion Council and maintained by the Center for Behavioral Health and Justice’s AOT initiative. The purpose of this toolkit is to serve as a resource for those wanting to learn more about AOT in Michigan. This resource is curated for people who are involved personally or professionally in supporting individuals with serious mental illness that either have an existing AOT order or may be a candidate for an AOT order. The content of this toolkit comes from people with knowledge of AOT and experience in various systems across Michigan.  

We update this toolkit regularly to reflect new findings, new legislation, and to incorporate valuable feedback from our users. It is our goal for the future direction of this toolkit to be a resource for all professionals that work with AOT orders, as well as a resource for those who are on AOT orders and their loved ones. As AOT law and procedure differ across the country, we also strive to make the information on the toolkit nuanced to Michigan-based providers.  

Submit your feedback on the toolkit

The Center for Behavioral Health and Justice has taken on several other AOT related projects including: 

AOT State Evaluation

The AOT initiative team was funded to gain better insight on how AOT was being practiced across the state. These efforts included distributing landscape surveys and subsequently conducting interviews with professionals from CMHs and probate courts, holding focus groups, and analyzing collected data for themes and findings.  

Foundational Strengthening Initiative (FSI)

Through other information gathering projects, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services saw a need for county funding to bolster the infrastructure around implementing AOT. Ten Michigan counties were awarded grant money to strengthen their AOT processes, procedures, and practices. The role that the CBHJ’s AOT initiative team will have in this project is to be a facilitator in executing technical assistance and data collection for the 10 chosen counties.  

To learn more about these projects, contact Julia Stewart