Some are not surprised by lawsuit over S.C. mental health care
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - The state of South Carolina now faces a federal lawsuit – claiming its treatment of people with mental illness is illegal.
The U.S. Department of Justice alleges the state has been and continues to violate federal laws – that protect Americans with disabilities.
The lawsuit comes a year and a half after the U.S. Department of Justice warned South Carolina it was likely violating federal law – in how it treats adults with serious mental illness.
“This has been a red flag that has been raised over and over and over,” said Kimberly Tissot, ABLE SC president and CEO.
The Department of Justice claims in this lawsuit – that more than a thousand adults with serious mental illness are “unnecessarily segregated” in community residential care facilities – also known as adult care homes.
The state runs eight of these facilities – and it pays for people to live at hundreds more of them.
It alleges most residents at these facilities “cannot choose who they live with, what they eat, or how they spend their days” – and that the state relies on these facilities instead of providing sufficient opportunities for people to avoid or move out of them or live in the community.
That’s resulted in what the federal government characterizes as “unnecessary institutionalization.”
“I compare it to a prison,” Tissot said. “There’s many, many community residential care facilities, and I’ve never seen one that’s somewhere I would want to put a family member.”
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The lawsuit alleges South Carolina violates the ADA by failing to provide community-based services that would prevent the segregation of adults with mental illness in adult care homes. As a result, more than 1,000 adults with mental illness are kept in adult care homes for years, and more continue to enter these facilities each month.
The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section investigated this case with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
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In response to the lawsuit, Gov. Henry McMaster’s office says the “lame-duck DOJ” isn’t acknowledging the responsive, collaborative communications among state agencies.
But the governor also says it’s another reason for the legislature to a bill that would merge six state health and human service agencies – some of which are named in the lawsuit – into one – whose director would be directly able to the governor.
That legislation fell just short of becoming law earlier this year.
“This suit by the Department of Justice is just one more indication, a clear indication, that we’re in trouble,” McMaster said. “We’ve got to fix those agencies.”
Tissot believes restructuring is part of the solution.
“That would be very helpful with making sure there is leadership ensuring that laws are being followed,” she said.
The South Carolina Department of Mental Health declined to comment on pending litigation.
But it said in response to the DOJ’s warning from last summer that it was surprised by the findings – claiming it has made significant efforts to address these issues.
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