Stay up to date on the latest news and legislative alerts in mental health law: Email   ZIP For RSS readers

Newsroom

Issue briefs offer policy receommentations for integration of mental health in healthcare reform (11/20/08)

New Booklet Explains Voting Rights of People with Mental Disabilities (10/7/08)

Mental Health Advocates Rejoice as Health Insurance Discrimination Ends (10/3/08)

Bazelon Center and Leadership 21 Release Student Guide (9/23/08)
Guide offers information about mental health resources for college and university students and explains their rights when seeking treatment.

Federal Court Approves Settlement Creating New Housing and Community Services in San Francisco (9/18/08)

President Signs ADA Amendments Act (9/25/08)
Bazelon Center has high praise for bipartisan passage of bill reviving ADA protections

Ruling in Katie A. Class Action Moves California Closer to Providing Mental Health Services Needed by Foster Children (9/22/08)

Medicare Mental Health Parity Approved (7/10/08) Congress Overrides Veto (7/15/08)

Bazelon Center Celebrates House Action on Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments (6/25/08)

Healthy Transitions Act Would Ease Path to Adulthood for Youth with Mental Illnesses (6/25/08)

New Publication Promotes Self-Directed Mental Health Care (5/20/08)

Advance Healthcare Planning Important Also for Mental Health Care (4/16/08)

Major Changes Ahead in State Medicaid Policy
Report explains state choices under federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (3/20/08)

Proposed Rules Issued for State Flexibility in Medicaid Plans (3/13/08)

Mental Health Advocates Hail House Parity Vote (3/5/08)

Disability Groups Oppose Nomination of Judge Gene E.K. Pratter to the Third Circuit (1/24/08)

Court Asked to Order Effective Community Mental Health Services for California Foster Children
January 11, 2008--The Bazelon Center and California advocates renewed their request in the case known as Katie A. that the federal court order the State of California to provide effective community mental health services to all children with mental health needs who are in or at risk of entering foster care. Read more...

Jailing of Runaway Foster Youth Without Attention to Mental Health Needs Overruled
On Dec. 20, 2007, Washington State’s highest court reversed a lower court’s imposition of extended detention of children who had run away from their foster care placements. The court issued a fragmented decision with multiple opinions, drawing heavily on an amicus brief filed by the Bazelon Center and other mental health advocates. The outcome, however, is that a juvenile court cannot use its contempt authority to incarcerate foster care runaways unless it has first explored statutory alternatives and also has ensured that needed mental health and substance abuse services have been provided. Read about the case...

New Agreement Mandates Sweeping Changes in D.C. Special Education
December 13, 2007—District of Columbia officials announced that the city will make sweeping changes in its special education program to comply with a new consent decree in a 10-year-old class action, Blackman & Jones v. District of Columbia. When approved by the court, the decree will require the school system to address the needs of hundreds of students with mental or physical disabilities who await services. Read more...

Lawsuit Yields Agreement to Create New Housing and Community Services for Seniors and People with Disabilities
Mark Chambers’ dream “to be part of the world outside” the nursing home he’s lived in for eight years will soon come true. Over the next five years, Chambers and several hundred other residents of the Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco will move to independent apartments linked to the supportive services they need, according to a settlement announced on November 27, 2007. Read more...

Appeals Court Favors Individual Determination of Voting Rights for Disenfranchised Citizens with Mental Disabilities

August 23, 2007—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit today held that Missouri law allows citizens who are under full guardianship to retain their voting rights if they demonstrate a capacity to vote. Read more...

Lawsuit Seeks to End Abuse of Girls in Mississippi Reform School

July 11, 2007—Troubled teenage girls in a state-run reform school in Mississippi have suffered “horrendous” physical and sexual abuse, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court today. The complaint asks the court to require the state to provide federally required mental health and rehabilitative treatment to girls confined in the Columbia Training School. Read more....

Bazelon Center Offers Educational Institutions a Model Policy for Addressing Student Mental Health Issues
Washington DC, May 16, 2007--The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law today released a model policy to help colleges and universities develop a non-discriminatory, non-punitive approach to students in crisis because of mental health problems. The document offers a response to serious mental health problems among college and university students and schools' lack of consensus on what to do when such students are in crisis. Read more...

Statement by the Bazelon Center on Student Mental Health Issues
Washington DC, April 24, 2007 —The Bazelon Center wishes to express its deepest sympathies to the families, friends and peers of the Virginia Tech shooting victims. In the wake of this tragedy, many students may suffer emotional distress. It is critically important that counseling and other mental health services be available to them and that they feel safe asking for help. Seeking help is often difficult. Read more...

Mayor Joins DCPS in Struggle to Meet Special Education Requirements
April 12, 2007-- This week lawyers from Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office joined DCPS lawyers at the second status hearing in months concerning Blackman and Jones v District of Columbia.  Lawyers for the Defendants told US District Judge Paul Friedman about a  “collaboration at the highest levels of DC government”in an effort to meet compliance targets set by the court-approved Consent Decree of July 2006. Read more...

Court Affirms States' Obligation to Provide Effective Mental Health Services to Foster Children
April 3, 2007--There is good news for children in California’s foster care system. On March 23, 2007, in Katie A. v. Bonta, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the state’s obligation to provide effective mental health services to foster children. The appellate court acknowledged compelling evidence that wraparound services and therapeutic foster care (TFC) are medically necessary for many children and that, without them, these children would face grave harm from unnecessary institutionalization. Read more....

Kennedy Tells Advocates No More Deals With Insurance Companies
March 8, 2007 -- Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) told policymakers and mental health advocates today that letting insurance companies define mental illness when setting limits on coverage is “bogus.” Kennedy and other policymakers addressed nearly 100 members of the mental health community during the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law’s “Working Breakfast” at the Columbus Club in Washington, DC.

Expert Panel Decries DCPS Failures
February 13, 2007 – The expert evaluation team appointed by the court to report on the District of Columbia Public Schools’ progress on federal special education requirements has produced its first report early, due to the “gravity” of their findings. Read more…

Court Asked to Release Controversial Eli Lilly Documents on Psychiatric Drug
February 7, 2007 —Mental health professionals, researchers and consumer groups told a federal court today that it should release evidence that the Eli Lilly company’s largest-selling drug, Zyprexa, prescribed for treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, has a significant risk of severe side effects. Read more...

Unjust Denial of Parental Rights Overturned
January 10, 2007—A Missouri appeals court has ruled that general conclusions about a mother’s mental disorder, based on stereotypes about her ability to care for a child, cannot support termination of her parental rights. The Bazelon Center’s amicus brief offered support for what is an altogether too rare decision. Read more…

Bazelon Center Statement on Judge Boyle's Withdrawal
January 9, 2007—We are very pleased that Judge Terrence Boyle has withdrawn his quest for confirmation to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Like many others in the disability community, we had grave concerns about Judge Boyle’s many rulings that show a lack of concern for the rights of people with disabilities. Read more...

Court Sets Three-Year Extension of Deadline for Reform of Arizona Mental Health System for Children (11/21/06)

Federal Court Advances Challenge to Illinois Policy Warehousing Residents with Mental Illnesses (11/20/06)

Student and University Settle Lawsuit on Mental Health Issues
(10/31/06)

Advocates Challenge Confinement in Huge Nursing Home; Say Funds Should Pay for Community Care (10/11/06)

Court Approves Agreement in DC Special Education Case (8/29/06)

Hunter College Settles Lawsuit by Student Barred from Dorm after Treatment for Depression (8/23/06)

New Resource Center on Psychiatric Advance Directives

Report Points Way to School Success for Children with Mental Health Needs (6/7/06)

Woman Forcibly Stripped by Male Guards Sues Beth Israel Hospital (6/5/06)

State Supreme Court Urged to Overrule Jailing of Foster Youth
(5/2/06)

Federal Court Asked to End Isolation of Illinois Residents with Mental Illnesses (5/26/06)

Court Orders Community Mental Health Services for Thousands of California Foster Children (3/14/06)

Student Punished for Getting Help (3/10/06)

Involuntary Outpatient Commitment Defeated in New Mexico
(2/16/06)

Issue Brief Lists Best Practices in Discharge Planning for Prisoners with Mental Illnesses (2/15/06)

Court Asked to Require Los Angeles County to Comply with 2003 Foster Care Agreement (2/14/06)

Lawsuit Challenges Unwarranted Confinement of People with Mental Illnesses in Connecticut Nursing Homes (2/6/06)

Online Handbook Addresses Criminalization of People with Mental Illnesses (1/12/06)

Statement on the Supreme Court’s Decision in Goodman v. Georgia (1/10/06)

For older news from the Bazelon Center, go to the news archive.