Introduction
In June 1999, the Supreme Court ruled, in Olmstead v. L.C.,(1) that
it is a form of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
when states fail to find community placements for individuals with disabilities,
thus causing them to remain in institutional settings. Some 76,000 individuals
with serious mental illnesses are currently residents of state mental hospitals.
Many thousands more live in nursing homes and others are inappropriately institutionalized
in jails.
To comply with the court's ruling, states must develop comprehensive plans
to end unnecessary institutionalization. They also need to implement those
plans at a "reasonable pace." States failing to do so run the risk of litigation
against which they would be hard-pressed to defend.
The L.C. decision opens up significant opportunities for expanding
community mental health systems and for real and substantial policy changes
in the states. As this paper explains, states must make serious efforts to
find new resources in order to provide opportunities for community living for
people with serious mental illnesses who do not need institutional care.
This paper summarizes the ruling and its relevance to mental health policy.
It also offers information on where states might find the necessary resources
to move forward with substantial expansion in new and effective community options.
L.C. represents a very significant opportunity for advocates of real
and substantial improvement in services to support community integration for
people with serious mental illness.
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