For Immediate Release: June 21, 2004
Contact: Christopher Burley, 202-467-5730
x 133, email: leec at bazelon.org
Legal Advocate Cites Ongoing Segregation on Eve of Olmstead Anniversary
Five Years After Key Decision, Bazelon Center Blasts Slow
Movement of People with Mental Illnesses Into the Community, Lack of Services
WASHINGTON, DC (June 21, 2004)—Five years ago tomorrow, the Supreme
Court issued its historic Olmstead decision, affirming that, under the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities should be served in the
most integrated setting possible—their communities. The following is
a prepared statement by Ira Burnim, legal director at the Bazelon Center for
Mental Health Law, on the anniversary of the ruling:
“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. Instead, states
have ‘transinstitutionalized’ people with mental illnesses to settings
as outmoded, isolating and inappropriate as the facilities they were meant
to replace. Increasing numbers of people with psychiatric disabilities now
find themselves in large board and care homes, ‘adult homes,’ nursing
homes, and other institution-like settings. Thousands wind up in jail or prison
because chronically underfunded community mental health systems fail to provide
meaningful support.
“Where real progress has occurred, it is largely because states have
been sued. Five years after Olmstead and 14 years after enactment of the Americans
with Disabilities Act, litigation should be unnecessary. Yet it remains the
single most effective way to combat the persistent segregation of people with
mental illnesses.
“It’s past time for Olmstead implementation to move out of the
courtroom and into America’s communities.”
The Bazelon Center spearheaded the disability community's efforts in Olmstead
v. L.C., the case that led to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on
community integration of people with disabilities. More information on the
case—including original court briefs and current articles and publications
on Olmstead implementation—is available at www.bazelon.org/olmstead.
# # #
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is a national legal advocate for
the civil rights and human dignity of people with mental disabilities. For
more information, please see www.bazelon.org.
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