The Open Communities Fund

On November 12, 2009, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law will inaugurate the Open Communities Fund in support of the Center’s campaign for full integration of people with mental illnesses in the life of their community. 

The Bazelon Center’s campaign will focus on implementation of the landmark 1999 Olmstead ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which affirmed the right of people with disabilities to receive public services in the most integrated setting consistent with their needs. In June of 2009, the Bazelon Center produced a call to action, Still Waiting.   

More to Do

Although some progress has been made in the last 10 years, too many people with mental illnesses remain unnecessarily segregated from their communities in hospitals, nursing homes, group homes, board-and-care facilities, residential centers for children, and even jails, detention centers and prisons. Yet when mental health professionals assess their needs, usually in the process of litigation, most are found able to benefit from services in the community -- and nearly all express a strong desire to live there, shopping, choosing where to live and what to eat and enjoying daily interaction with people without disabilities.

The response to Still Waiting has been clear: the time has come for intensified action. This is why we have established the Open Communities Fund. The Open Communities Fund will enable the Bazelon Center to:

• Renew and redouble efforts to expand access to supportive housing, an essential element of Olmstead.  Former senior staff attorney Bonnie Milstein is returning to the Bazelon Center, bringing expertise in low-income housing issues.  She will spearhead a reinvigorated housing program that will integrate public policy and litigation, with particular emphasis on getting people flexible services and supports that will enable them to live in mainstream housing in their communities. 
  
  
• Build on the landmark success of DAI v. Paterson. The district court held that New York State violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily segregating 4,300 people with mental illnesses in for-profit “adult homes” in New York City. With the help offered by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Bazelon Center will seek a far-reaching remedy—a major increase in the number of supported apartments and the availability of case management and other services for the people who will live in them.  The next step will be to replicate the remedy through legal challenges in other venues that warehouse people with mental illnesses, isolating them from the rest of their communities.
  
  
• Launch impact litigation to apply Olmstead to employment. Even before today’s economic downturn, unemployment among people with serious mental illnesses was at a staggering 78%. With the help of the Open Communities Fund, the Bazelon Center will work to reverse the current pattern of providing support (though it is currently rarely available) exclusively in sheltered settings with no prospect of securing gainful employment.
  
  
• Expand the Bazelon Center’s work in local communities, undertaking a performance-improvement initiative to recognize that now-routine encounters between people with serious mental illnesses and law enforcement can often be traced to the systemic failure of mental health and other human services systems.  Initiatives currently planned in five cities will encourage mental health programs to get off the sidelines, assume responsibility for these undesirable outcomes and become actively engaged in reform advocacy.
  
  
• Develop publications and other tools for use by local stakeholders in challenging the vested interests, including the nursing home lobby and unions representing institutional staff, that stand as obstacles to individuals’ rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Individuals, corporations and foundations that support the Open Communities Fund can be assured that their contributions will ultimately enable many thousands of men, women and children to live in freedom and dignity as full members of their communities.