A bird makes a stop on a handicapped parking sign on Dec. 14, 2021. The Justice Department is inquiring whether Michigan unnecessarily keeps adults with serious mental illness in state psychiatric hospitals in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group/TNS)
Tribune News Service — The Justice Department has opened a disability rights investigation into whether Michigan unnecessarily keeps adults with serious mental illness in state psychiatric hospitals in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the department announced Wednesday.
The department said it will investigate whether Michigan provides adequate community-based mental health services to allow people to transition out of state psychiatric hospitals and back into the community.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act protects people’s right to receive mental health services in the community, rather than remaining in hospitals when they are ready to go home,” said Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This investigation will assess whether Michigan is honoring the ADA’s promise that people with disabilities be served in the most integrated setting appropriate.
“The Civil Rights Division will continue to advocate for states to provide people with disabilities the services they need to avoid unnecessary institutionalization.”
The DOJ notified the Michigan Department of Attorney General and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services of its investigation, the department said in a press release Wednesday.
Representatives from the AG and MDHHS were not immediately available for comment. Representatives from Michigan disability rights groups also were not immediately available.
Michigan operates four psychiatric hospitals — Caro Psychiatric Hospital; Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Washtenaw County; Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital; and Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital in Westland.
The DOJ encouraged people with relevant information about its investigation to contact investigators at community.michigan@usdoj.gov, (888) 392-5415 or civilrights.justice.gov.
In its ADA investigations, the DOJ looks into whether states use institutions such as psychiatric hospitals to treat people who could and would prefer to get care through community-based services. The investigations hinge on the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court case Olmstead v. L.C., in which justices ruled that people with disabilities “have a right to be served in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs and wishes,” according to the DOJ.
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