Kentucky segregating adults with mental illness: DOJ

( NewsNation ) — The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday they have “reasonable cause” to believe the Commonwealth of Kentucky is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The breach relates to the commonwealth “unnecessarily segregating” those with “serious mental illness” by placing them in psychiatric hospitals instead of providing care within the community.

According to the release, the occurrences were within the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro area.

“People with serious mental illnesses in Louisville are caught in an unacceptable cycle of repeated psychiatric hospitalizations because they cannot access community-based care,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said.

Clarke noted that Kentucky had wholly cooperated with the DOJ and was looking to implement changes.

“Each year, thousands of people are admitted to psychiatric hospitals in Louisville, and more than a thousand people experience multiple admissions to these restrictive and often traumatizing settings,” the statement read.

“With the right community-based services, many of these hospitalizations could be prevented. Kentucky can remedy this violation by expanding community-based services and implementing processes to ensure that individuals can receive those services.”

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