About the Study

The Otago CTO Study has 3 main parts:

• A qualitative study of the views of 42 patients (consumers of mental health services) who had been under a CTO in the previous 2 years, and of the views of their families and clinicians. Within this study, a separate analysis has been conducted of the position of 8 patients of Maori ethnicity.

• A survey of all New Zealand psychiatrists, concerning their views on the use of CTOs, and the comparison of their views with those expressed by community mental health professionals, who were not psychiatrists, in the Otago region.

• A study of the legislation and literature concerning CTOs in several other jurisdictions, including the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada, to compare approaches taken to the legal authorisation of involuntary outpatient care.

The first two parts of the study were funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the third part by the New Zealand Law Foundation