What Allegheny County’s new court-ordered mental health treatment program can and can’t do

Allegheny County can now order treatment for people with serious mental illness. But what’s driving results – the order itself or the services behind it?

By: Erica Maloney, Chatham University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: July 20, 2026

Words: 1,444

Last Updated: 1 month ago

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By Erica Maloney, Chatham University

Pittsburgh-area courts have a new tool for people in mental health crisis: the power to order treatment instead of incarceration or hospitalization.

Between 2015 and 2022, more than 5,000 people a year were evaluated for involuntary hospitalization in Allegheny County, and roughly 3,700 were committed. Fewer than half got follow-up outpatient care afterward, and 20% died within five years of that first evaluation. These deaths often trace to more than …

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