On the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court Olmstead decision, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law called for a renewed effort to integrate people with disabilities in their communities. The organization’s report, “Still Waiting — The Unfulfilled Promise of Olmstead,” says federal and state governments could save billions of dollars by moving people with mental disabilities from institutional to community settings.

Among the report’s key points:

• States must end the unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities in institutions, and shift funding to appropriate community-based services;
• States continue to waste scarce resources by placing people with mental illnesses in costly, ineffective institutional settings, often under pressure by profit-making providers; and
• Supreme Court and other judicial nominees must have an understanding of and intention to uphold Olmstead, the ADA, and other civil rights laws.

“On this pivotal anniversary of Olmstead, we must take a hard look at what really needs to be accomplished to adequately serve millions of people with mental illnesses so that they receive the most integrated care possible,” said Robert Bernstein, executive director of the Bazelon Center. The report was released at a Washington press conference.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 9:27 am and is filed under community services, institutionalization, intellectual/developmental disabilities, law, law enforcement, mental health, NOT2BEMISSED. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.