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Home » News » Archives » Federal Court Asked to End Isolation of Illinois Residents with Mental Illnesses
Federal Court Asked to End Isolation of Illinois Residents with Mental Illnesses Residents of Illinois nursing homes charged today that they and many others with mental illnesses are "needlessly segregated and inappropriately warehoused" in violation of federal laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). They asked a federal district court in Chicago to order state agencies to develop suitable community-living alternatives for them. The request came in Williams v. Blagojevich, filed in August 2005 by two individuals forced into nursing homes in the Chicago area. The amended complaint filed today asks the court to grant class-action status to obtain relief for adults who are unnecessarily confined in for-profit nursing homes classified by state officials as "institutions for mental diseases" (IMDs). More than 5,000 people are housed in such facilities in Illinois. "More than two decades ago, the state closed large public institutions, saying it would provide better care in the community for people with mental illnesses," said Benjamin Wolf, associate legal director for the ACLU of Illinois, one of five legal organizations representing the plaintiffs. "But today, people with mental illnesses are forced to live in private institutions because no Governor, no Department, no General Assembly has kept that promise." The plaintiffs cite the 1999 Olmstead decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which requires states to serve people with disabilities in "the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs." "When the ADA was enacted in 1990, Congress identified the segregation of people with disabilities as a severe form of discrimination," says Barry Taylor, legal advocacy director at Equip for Equality, which is also representing the plaintiffs. "Yet 16 years later, Illinois continues to channel thousands of people with mental illnesses into large institutions while other states offer them the choice to live in the community." The complaint details the highly regimented nature of many of the institutions where the plaintiffs are confined. These facilities offer no privacy and many provide little more than shelter and board. Most residents get federal disability benefits, but must sign over their monthly checks to the facility and receive an allowance of only $30 a month. |
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Comments
My daughter is mentally ill. She was one of the lucky ones to find her way to a not-for-profit program that has helped her tremendously with fnding the best help available: necessary drugs, therapy, psychiatry, and classes to help her learn to deal with her mental illness and once again be an independent adult. She is on her way to once again becoming a productive member of society, and proud to have come this far.
I have also seen people with mental illness put in for-profit nursing homes, because the State has no place else to put them. They are warehoused with no real help for their illness. No hope for bettering themselves, or learning to work around the disability. No hope to become an independent and productive member of society. Just housed and given medication and 3 meals a day.
When we have had so many advances in the treatment of mental illness, it is a shame that the State of Illinois is still treating the mentally ill so poorly. The majority of the mentally ill have every hope to become independent and productive people with the right medication, therapy and training. Wouldn't it be to the State's advantage to help them gain their lives back, and become productive once again? Able to live indepentently, work and pay taxes?
The State of Illinois should be treating these people with the dignity they deserve. Not shoving them aside and forgetting about them.
Posted by: Kathi Wotal | May 17, 2006 11:26 AM
I have a mental illness. I know many people that have been forced in to nursing homes, and, for a ahort time, it looked as though I might have been. However I came to be a patient of a wonderful not-for-profit organization that placed me in a Transitional Living Program where I get case management, therapy, a psychiatrist, and groups to help me integrate myself back into society as an independent adult. A nursing home would not have done this for me.
EVERY individual with mental illness deserves the kind of care and treatment that I have recieved, because TREATMENT WORKS.
Posted by: Jenifer Hibben | May 18, 2006 04:41 PM