In an Editorial appearing in the New York Times on October 20, 2009, it was reported that the justice system would be upholding the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 ("ADA"). (See,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/... Since the beginning of the Bush Administration nearly nine years ago, the strength of ADA was critically weakened. This severely affected those individuals with a mental disability or brain disorder by limiting their living arrangements. The ADA provides for the protected rights of individuals with a disability to receive the same liberties and freedoms as the Civil Rights Act affords all citizens. However, a necessary protective element of ADA for mentally ill individuals is that they must be participating in a community mental health arrangement and it does not, of course, imply that people with a mental illness should be allowed to commit crimes, etc. The individuals must not be a physical threat to him or herself or to others, also.
What ADA does is recognize that there are indivuals who have a mental illness and who are completely capable of living in the community independently like a "normal" person, but need supervisory mental healthcare and/or supports and services accessible in the community that can be managed properly for successful living and protections of everyone in the community. Understand that prior to ADA, the only alternative was to house anybody with a mental illness diagnosis in a mental institution. Perhaps this is largely why people (historically) are afraid to seek mental healthcare. This is also probably the key stigma attached to mental illness situations.
As time passed by, the trend shifted from mental institutions to "adult group homes." The shift was due to ADA. Having said that, often jurisdictions may fall out of compliance with upholding ADA in adult group homes. Under ADA, a person with a mental illness can live in the community in a non-restrictive environment such as his or her own apartment. The person can move about freely in the community without being subjected to prison-type housing that many group homes offered. These class of individuals are not criminals and should not be treated as such merely because of the mental condition. Similar to the British Mental Health Act of 1983, a person can live in the community in the US as long as he or she can safely meet two basic conditions: 1) there has to be a mechanism to ensure that a patient participates in a treatment plan (including taking prescribed medication) while they remain in the community and 2) there must be a way to ensure continuity of this without interfering with the patients' status in the community.
Now we can better understand community-based clinics and mental rehabilitation treatment facilities that give this class of individuals access to mental healthcare along with community living. This is the equivalent to having community centers for drug rehabilitation or sports medicine treatment.
As I read more about what is going on in New York with these seemingly ADA violations, I pray that thousands of other persons with a mental health issue can live successfully in the community as well as the message travels that the Bush era is gone and justice has returned to uphold ADA!
In order to do that, the affordability of mental healthcare has to be made possible. Considering that nearly 4 million people lack health insurance according to 2008 statistics by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the potential for individuals with an untreated mental condition to live a quality of life in a community is greatly diminished. The result can be increased homelessness or misplaced persons in a prison-type group home preventing the person from being involved in a community. Accessible healthcare remains key. Healthcare Reform must be passed.
In the New York Times article, the power of the Justice Department is no longer being used to undermine civil rights laws. On the contrary, the department is applying ADA and has started a timely new initiative to target enforcing ADA. This new law will forbid the unjustified isolation of a mentally disabled person. The new law will also require that the person be integrated into the wider community where appropriate.
This new law in New York is wonderful because it will mean so many positives for the US. The timeliness of this new law with healthcare reform is also very beneficial to both the individual and the community. I say that because teaching a person how to live independently with coping and managing skills for the mental illness or disability supports will give that person a quality of life. A quality of life could include employment, community service, education, community development and will team with the efforts of the US to increase global strength. While this is a micro view of how the enforcement of ADA can work, it is important in changing the perspective of macro stigmas against the mentally ill persons. Stigmas lead to undermining (violating) US civil rights laws.
Also, in looking at the micro situation going on in New York, a group of individuals with a mental illness are being forced to live in adult-run group homes. The matter is being closely watched by civil rights lawyers prepared to intervene to ensure ADA is upheld. A federal judge recently described those adult-run group homes as “even more restrictive or ‘institutional’ than psychiatric hospitals” that they were intended to replace! This is both shameful and dehumanizing.
In looking inside these New York homes, federal judge, Nicholas Garaufis, concluded that the conditions of the homes were dismal. The homes did not in any way comply with ADA and closely resembled prison-type housing. The mentally ill people who could otherwise thrive in a community independently, but were made to live in the group homes did not present any danger to themselves or to others and had little of the privacy, freedom, or enriching activities that would help them develop full, independent, and quality lives individually.
The article goes further stating, that thousands of New Yorkers with mental disabilities were still confined in this way. This was striking since New York already knows the right way to do it. Nationally, New York had a reputation for vibrant, innovative housing developments that upheld ADA and allows mentally disabled people to live successfully and independently. They also can receive mental health and other services from community-based groups.
The judge has already required the state to produce a plan for correcting this egregious situation with the warehousing of the mentally disabled. But in the letter announcing its intent to intervene, the Justice Department said this matter was “a great concern” to the federal government. It said it wanted a role in the process because the remedy designed in New York might serve as a national model for dealing with this problem. The onus is now on the state to come up with that remedy.
Evangelist Agnes B. Levine
Founder/President, Levine-Oliver Publisherwww.levineoliverpublisher.com, 2010 Strathmore's Distinguished Who's Who! Author of: "Cooling Well Water: A Collection of Work By An
African-American Bipolar Woman" ISBN 13 978-0-9754612-0-4
Available NOW at Amazon.com while supplies last!
Psalm Music soothes the mood
in my private room
for thoughts gathered throughout the day
my 'lone time to pray
Ps. 100
Posted By: agnes levine
Saturday, October 24th 2009 at 4:43PM
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