Why We Believe Colorado's "Community Living Plan"/Olmstead Plan Is Not Comprehensive and Is In Fact Woefully Inadequate for People with Mental Illness. & Sources of Law for our Olmstead/Civil Rights Complaint

Why CO's "Community Living Plan" is Woefully Inadequate & Sources of Law

Why We Believe Colorado's "Community Living Plan"/Olmstead Plan Is Not Comprehensive and Is In Fact Woefully Inadequate for People with Mental Illness.

Colorado lacks a comprehensive and effectively working plan for serving people with mental illness in the community rather than institutional settings including jails, prisons, nursing homes, mental health institutes and those at great risk of institutionalization as a result of homelessness, largely as the result of the following:

Colorado’s failure to comprehensively plan and provide for the intensive community services needed by the thousands of Coloradans with mental illness who find themselves at risk for involvement with the Criminal Justice System, leading in thousands of cases to jail and often prison.

Colorado's failure to sufficiently address health disparities for people with mental illness who are also members of racial, ethnic, and cultural minorities leading to unnecessary incarceration and homelessness.

Colorado’s failure to comprehensively plan and provide for the intensive community services needed by thousands of Coloradans with mental illness who are homeless and at great risk of institutionalization.

Colorado’s failure to comprehensively plan and provide for intensive services such as Assertive Community Treatment for those nursing home residents and people at the mental health institutes that are facing barriers to discharge.

Colorado’s failure to maintain systems of benefits and services that are reasonably understandable and accessible to people with mental illness under severe stress such as people who are homeless or provide sufficient assistance in navigating the maze of overly user and case manager unfriendly systems.

Colorado's failure to maintain a sufficient housing supply for people with mental illness, especially those who meet the criteria for Colorado Medicaid Long Term Care Home and Community Based Services, Such failure leads to unnecessary institutionalization, including jails, prisons, nursing homes, Mental Health Institutes, as well as great risk of institutionalization as a result of homelessness.

Colorado's failure to provide adequate discharge planning procedures in place for the many institutions people with mental illness find themselves in across systems, including the Criminal Justice System which is in fact where most people with mental illness in Colorado are institutionalized.

Colorado's failure to make available intensive mental health services to all where reasonably medically necessary such as Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) nor to provide any type of waitlist moving at a reasonable pace for such services.
Colorado's failure to provide sufficient supported employment such as the Dartmouth Model of Supported Employment.

Etc.

Sources of Law

For Orchid's Draft MI Olmstead/Civil Rights Complaint to the State

(Of course, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and Olmstead are Civil Rights. We use the term "Civil Rights" to refer to Protections against Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities that lead to an horrific levels of incarceration and/or homelessness of people with mental illness who are racially or ethnically diverse.)

Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq.,

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Rehabilitation Act”),

29 U.S.C. §§ 794 et seq., and the Nursing Home Reform Amendments (“NHRA”), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396r et seq.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects people of every race, color and national origin from unlawful discrimination.

US Constitutional protections against discrimination depriving Substantive Due Process of Law, 14th Amendment.