Tuesday, June 22, 2004

The U.S. Supreme Court Olmstead Decision: Five Years Later
Page indexing resources from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured - "Five years after the Supreme Court’s landmark Olmstead decision applying the Americans with Disabilities Act to the right of individuals with disabilities to receive health care in a community-based setting, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured releases two new reports and a video examining what progress has been made and the impact on the Medicaid program." See especially the policy brief Olmstead v. L.C.: The Interaction of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Medicaid and the report - Olmstead at Five: Assessing the Impact.  
  

Legal Advocate Cites Ongoing Segregation on Eve of Olmstead Anniversary
US Newswire press release from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law reprinted at Yahoo - "While many Americans with disabilities have made progress since the Olmstead ruling, people with mental illnesses have been largely left behind in efforts to implement the decision. Most states are enacting Olmstead reforms at a snail's pace, defying the spirit of the ruling and preventing Americans with mental illnesses from participating in their communities. Rhetoric has far outstripped action to promote community services for people with mental illnesses. States are quick to trumpet their limited efforts to implement Olmstead, but these have produced little actual movement of people with mental illnesses into integrated community settings. Budget pressures have closed psychiatric hospitals across the country, but few appropriate community services have been adequately funded to help people with mental illnesses live successfully in the community..."  
  

Advocates Praise Efforts to Address Criminalization of People with Mental Illnesses
US Newswire press release - "The Campaign for Mental Health Reform -- a national coalition representing people with mental illnesses, their families, mental health advocates and service providers -- today praised a Congressional hearing on legislation to address the growing numbers of people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. 'Far too many people with mental illnesses are ending up in our nation's jails and prisons,' said Ron Honberg, a spokesman for the Campaign for Mental Health Reform and national director of public policy and legal affairs at NAMI. 'Today's hearing underscores the urgent need for federal legislation to address this disturbing trend.' During the House Judiciary Committee's hearing today on "The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act" (S. 1194, H.R. 2387), committee members will hear testimony from mental health advocates, family members, law enforcement officers and federal officials on the need to enact the bill, which the Senate passed in November of 2003."  
  

Mental-health sufferers lack support (Washington)
Story in The Columbian focused on one woman, whose experiences have "...drawn attention to a mental- health system so fragmented that people in need can easily go untreated. Even those who have private insurance often struggle to get services. And those who successfully navigate the bureaucratic maze sometimes give up on their treatments."