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About the Bazelon Center
What does the Bazelon Center do?
The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is the
nation's leading civil rights organization representing people
with mental
illnesses or mental retardation.
Our advocacy is based on the principle that every individual is
entitled to choice and dignity. The Bazelon Center works to promote
community membership and self-determination for people with mental
disabilities and to preserve the rights and protections that individuals
with disabilities have already won. Finally, the Center seeks to
end the punishment of people with mental disabilities for the system's
failure to provide them adequate community-based services.
Our precedent-setting litigation has outlawed institutional abuse
and won protections against arbitrary confinement. In the courts
and in Congress, our advocacy has opened up public schools, workplaces,
housing and other opportunities for community life. To learn more
about our work, check out the issues
section of this web site.
Members of the media often ask the Bazelon Center to comment
about the rights of people with psychiatric disabilities. What accountability
does the Center have to people who actually live every day with
psychiatric disabilities, and the stigma and discrimination that
flow from being so diagnosed? There is a guiding principle in the
disability community: "Nothing about us without us." Does
the Bazelon Center adhere to this principle? The Bazelon Center is committed to promoting self-advocacy
by individuals with mental disabilities. The
Center has a proud history of building bridges of understanding
between
individuals with disabilities, treatment professionals and policymakers
and regularly refers members of the media to consumer self-advocacy
organizations.
How does the Bazelon Center decide whether or not to be involved
in a case?
The Bazelon Center receives many requests for legal assistance.
Unfortunately, we cannot help in every instance. We co-counsel
with local lawyers and focus our efforts on cases that will have
the farthest-reaching impact
on
improving
the lives of people with mental illnesses or mental retardation.
Cases must meet several important criteria
for the Bazelon Center to get involved.
Some of the cases that the Bazelon Center has worked on
don't involve people with mental disabilities. How does your
work for individuals
with other disabilities fit into the Bazelon Center's priorities?
The Bazelon Center is committed to cutting-edge litigation to define
the rights of people with mental disabilities and to preserve
and
advance the hard-won rights and protections for which they have
fought over the years. We sometimes work on cases
that are
not strictly
related
to mental disability issues
in order to affect broad legal areas - such as the scope of the
Americans with Disabilities Act or the Fair Housing Act - that
have
powerful relevance to the rights of people with mental illnesses
or mental retardation.
How does the Center set its legislative and policy priorities?
Can I have any input in this process?
While our senior policy staff determines our legislative and policy
priorities, the Bazelon Center consults with our
board of trustees, regular coalition partners and members of
the mental health advocacy community - including consumer groups
- when determining these priorities. We also invite participation
from the public in our work. Please let
us know what issues are important to you.
Who funds the Bazelon Center?
The Bazelon Center is supported primarily by foundation grants
and individual donations. We also receive limited funding from
the
federal government for specific projects and occasionally collect
attorney fees awarded by the courts. A small percentage of our
budget
comes from the sale of publications.
What is the Bazelon Society?
The Bazelon Society is a special group of dedicated men and women
who share the Bazelon Center's belief in the civil rights and human
dignity of people with mental disabilities. Its members are diverse,
sharing a common passion for justice and equality. Like you, they
believe that people with mental illnesses or mental retardation
deserve adequate health care and rehabilitation services, decent
housing, sufficient income, and an opportunity to live free of stigma,
stereotype and discrimination. Find
out how to become a member of the Bazelon Society today.
Do you sell or trade my name to other organizations?
We do not sell or rent any of our lists to third parties. Very occasionally
we may share a list with a like-minded nonprofit organization. For
example, once a year we exchange subscribers with the American Bar
Association's Commission on Mental and Physical Disability to send
information about new publications. If you do not wish your name
to be exchanged, please email pubs@bazelon.org
with your name and address in the body of the message. Our
full privacy policy is also available online.
Can the Bazelon Center help me with my case?
The Bazelon Center receives many requests for legal assistance.
Unfortunately, we lack the staff and the necessary expertise
in
each state's laws and regulations to handle individual requests
for information or assistance. In most cases, your
state's protection and advocacy system will be better able
to help you or will be able to refer you to someone who can.
I've heard that Bazelon was responsible for "deinstitutionalization,"
but weren't the old state hospitals safer and better for people
with mental illnesses than being homeless, or in jail, or isolated
in the community, or cycling in and out of emergency rooms? Unquestionably, people with mental illnesses face tremendous
adversity. While we no longer simply
warehouse individuals with mental disabilities in huge state-run
facilities, appropriate services in the community have largely
failed
to materialize in ways that could improve the lives. To address
these deficits, the Bazelon Center is committed to a
new vision of public mental health.
We continue to work on a number of issues
to improve the lives of people with mental disabilities.
Does the Bazelon Center oppose civil commitment under all
circumstances?
No, but given the extreme limits that civil commitment places on
individual freedom, we believe the standard for commitment should
be high. People who truly pose a danger to themselves or to others
should receive appropriate treatment. Civil commitment may be warranted
in response to an emergency, if there is no less restrictive alternative.
However, civil commitment requires a meaningful judicial process
to protect the individual's rights.
Because involuntary outpatient commitment generally lacks this
process, the Bazelon Center opposes all forms of involuntary outpatient
commitment. The basis for involuntary outpatient commitment is
often
rooted in speculation, not in legally permissible measures of
need.
Outpatient commitment is a dangerous formalization of coercion
within the community mental health system. Such coercion undermines
consumer confidence and causes many consumers to avoid contact with
the mental health system altogether.
What is the Center's position on Assertive Community Treatment
(ACT)?
The Bazelon Center believes that access to voluntary services can
produce positive outcomes for people with mental illnesses. ACT
can be a successful means of linking people with mental illnesses
to mental health services and supports that they had not previously
sought or received. When appropriately responsive to the choices
of individuals with mental illnesses, ACT can provide a bridge to
the resources and services necessary to live an independent life
in the community. The goal of such practices should be to persuade
- rather than coerce - individuals to seek such services before
they face crisis.
What's the Center's position on the use of restraint and
seclusion?
Too often, restraint
and seclusion is used to compensate for insufficient staff or
for convenience, coercion or punishment - sometimes with deadly
results. Because it is so coercive and potentially dangerous, restraint
and seclusion should be used only as a last resort in emergency
safety situations involving immediate physical danger or harm to
self or others. Its use must be time-limited and subject to a physician's
order and oversight and to constant monitoring by qualified professional
staff.
Does Bazelon oppose the use of group homes and other congregate
housing for people with disabilities?
The Center believes that recovery from mental illnesses requires
access to stable, affordable and accessible housing
that is well integrated into the community. Most people with mental
illnesses can live independently in apartments or houses. Others
do best when living with a small group of other people, with access
to appropriate mental health services and supports. The Center encouraged
Congress to adopt the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 to protect
the rights of people with disabilities to a broad range of housing
options, and to be free from discrimination in determining the housing
that was most appropriate to their needs. The Bazelon Center is
not opposed to the continued use of group homes for people who require
structure and intensive services, but we support a greater investment
of public resources in independent and supportive housing, and greater
coordination with service providers to ensure that people with mental
illnesses can readily and voluntarily choose mental health services
and supports.
Most people agree on the importance of making sure that
people with mental illnesses are covered by insurance in the
same
way
that
they
would be covered for a physical ailment. Does the
Bazelon Center support mental health parity for "serious
mental illnesses,"
such as schizophrenia and clinical depression? Absolutely. The Bazelon Center supports parity
and we strongly believe that many less severe forms of mental
illness should be covered, too. Some advocates feel that insurers
should only be required to cover the most serious of mental illnesses.
The Bazelon Center believes that such a standard is arbitrary
and
discriminatory.
Does the Bazelon Center support the use of managed care plans
for Medicaid-eligible adults with serious mental illnesses and children
with severe emotional disturbances? The Bazelon Center has serious concerns about the appropriateness
of using managed care
plans to provide services for adults and children with mental illnesses.
Research shows that mental health services are the last to
be paid for when insurers start prioritizing what services to cover.
Mental health courts seem like a humane alternative to having
people with mental illnesses in jails and prisons. Does the
Bazelon
Center support or oppose them? Mental health courts are no replacement for adequate services
in the community. The establishment of mental health courts can
discourage communities from pursuing earlier diversion options,
encourage longer "sentences" through treatment requirements,
and increase stigma by allowing courts to require a guilty plea
in order to participate in the program. Resources would be better
utilized helping individuals with mental illnesses access the
services
they need before they come into contact with the
criminal justice system. For more information, please see
this publication
on the role of mental health courts in system reform.
