[NYAPRS Enews] Bazelon, AP: Advocates File Olmstead Law Suit vs New Hampshire

Fri Feb 10 07:30:54 EST 2012

Advocates For The Mentally Ill Sue NH

By Lynne Tuohy Associated Press / February 9, 2012

Advocates for the mentally ill filed a lawsuit against New Hampshire on
Thursday, saying the state needlessly confines the disabled in mental
wards because it lacks services to treat them in the community.

The plaintiffs and their lawyer, led by the Disabilities Rights Center,
want a federal judge to order the state to expand community services and
crisis intervention programs.

"People who are institutionalized are isolated from loved ones," said
Attorney Amy Messer, legal director of the Disabilities Rights Center.
"For others who cycle in and out of New Hampshire Hospital and community
hospitals around the state, their lives are marked by constant
disruption and change."

Assistant Attorney General Anne Edwards said her office is in the
process of reviewing the lawsuit. "Obviously we will be defending the
state's system."

The class-action lawsuit comes 10 months after a federal investigation
found the state's mental health system fails its citizens in need and is
in crisis.

Federal investigators say the state's mental health system relies too
heavily on confining the mentally ill in the New Hampshire State
Hospital and its nursing home component Glencliff Home.

"Reliance on unnecessary and expensive institutional care both violates
the civil rights of people with disabilities and incurs unnecessary
expense," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez wrote in the
April 2011 report.

Claims in the lawsuit mirror the conclusions of the federal
investigation and come as no surprise to state officials who for years
have acknowledged deficiencies in the system and developed a 10-year
plan to address them. DHHS Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas in 2009 labeled
it "a broken system."

The Disabilities Rights Center and advocates who filed the lawsuit say
the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by
segregating the mentally ill in institutions and not providing less
restrictive alternatives in the community. They say they filed the
lawsuit as a last resort, after lengthy negotiations with the state
failed to produce any results.

Lawyers for the mentally ill said Thursday that New Hampshire has
regressed since the late 1980s, when it was lauded by the National
Institute of Mental Health as a leader in providing community services
for the mentally ill. Messer said admissions to New Hampshire Hospital
and Glencliff House in Benton have "skyrocketed" from 900 in 1989 to
2,300 in 2010.

"Once sent to Glencliff, few people ever return to their community,"
Messer said. "Over the years more people have died at Glencliff than
have returned to their community."

Kenneth R. is a 65-year-old resident of Glencliff House and a named
plaintiff in the lawsuit. His guardian, Jayne McCabe, said Thursday he's
been there seven years and desperately wants to leave, but there are no
services in the community to help him cope with his mental illness and
paraplegia.

Messer said she met Kenneth R. when she visited Glencliff House and
interviewed a number of its residents. "He looked up and said, `Can you
get me out of here?'"

The federal report released last April stated that the average cost of
institutionalizing a mentally ill patient is $287,000 a year, compared
with the $44,000 it costs to treat them in the community. Lawyers for
the mentally ill say the annual cost of a bed at New Hampshire Hospital
is $435,000

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2012/02/09/advoc
ates_for_the_mentally_ill_sue_nh/

-------------------------

Advocates File Lawsuit Against NH's Failing Mental Health Care System

Bazelon Center News Release

Concord, N.H. - February 9, 2012 - Advocates from the Judge David L.
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the Disabilities Rights Center,
the Center for Public Representation and Devine, Millimet & Branch, PA,
filed a class-action complaint today on behalf of New Hampshire
residents with serious mental illnesses who are or are at risk of being
institutionalized in state-run facilities due to the state's failure to
provide community-based mental health services.

Over the last twenty years, New Hampshire has favored funding costly
institutions over providing the community-based services and supports
people with mental disabilities need to enjoy a full life in the
community like anyone else. 

"The vast majority of people with serious mental illnesses or
intellectual disabilities can lead fulfilling lives in their
communities, provided they have the community services and supports they
need to succeed," said Ira Burnim, legal director of the Bazelon Center
for Mental Health Law. "Living independently, maintaining meaningful
relationships and having gainful employment should be the goal for
people with mental disabilities."

State officials have failed to provide treatment in the most integrated
setting possible, say advocates, and are in violation of the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973 and the Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR)
provisions of the Nursing Home Reform Act. The complaint calls for New
Hampshire to expand services with proven success rates, including mobile
crisis services, assertive community treatment, supportive housing and
supported employment. 

Advocates filed a complaint after New Hampshire failed to respond to an
April 2011 finding from the United States Department of Justice that New
Hampshire's state mental health system is in violation of the ADA.  In
November 2010, advocates sent a letter to two of the complaint's
defendants, Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas of the New Hampshire
Department of Health and Human Services and Administrator Erik Rivera of
the New Hampshire Bureau of Behavioral Health, describing the state's
violations and seeking negotiations. The complaint was filed when
negotiations reached an impasse.  

###

*         The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
(http://www.bazelon.org) is the leading national legal-advocacy
organization representing people with mental disabilities. It promotes
laws and policies that can enable people with serious mental illnesses
or intellectual disabilities to exercise their life choices and access
the resources they need to participate fully in their communities.

*         The Disabilities Rights Center is New Hampshire's designated
protection and advocacy agency, and the only disability advocacy agency
in the state with legal services capacity. More information about DRC
can be found at http://www.drcnh.org. 

*         The Center for Public Representation
(http://www.centerforpublicrep.org) is dedicated to promoting change in
the quality of lives of individuals with disabilities in Massachusetts
and to pursuing systemic reform and enforcement of legal rights on a
statewide and national basis. The Center's primary purpose is to serve
people with disabilities, and particularly those who are
institutionalized, discriminated against, or otherwise denied
fundamental human rights.

*         Devine, Millimet & Branch, PA (http://www.devinemillimet.com
offers legal counsel to businesses and individual clients throughout New
Hampshire and all of New England. 

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