About Orchid
​

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​OUR GOAL:

​ Systems of   Community Mental Health [including Substance Use Issues],  Brain Injury &  Developmental Disability Services, Housing & Placements

Robust enough to serve the needs of Coloradans & People Around the World to prevent unnecessary   homelessness & criminal justice involvement

WHILE RESPECTING   INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS. ​

Orchid's Legal & Advocacy Priorities

                       Orchid Mental Health Legal Advocacy of Colorado, Inc. is a non-profit organization started by attorney Valerie Corzine.  

                 This has really expanded beyond "Serious Mental Illness," to people with Brain Injury, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Issues and expanded beyond Colorado to Federal & Global struggles to eliminate .

               Val worked early in her career at the Oklahoma County District Attorney's Office, then several years in a private law practice in Oklahoma City concentrating on family law matters.
    
                More recently, Val worked as Colorado's Legal Assistance Developer for the Elderly and the Senior Attorney in the Protection and Advocacy Program for Individuals with Mental Illness at The Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People.

                         Orchid works with the Colorado Legal Community, other mental health advocates, people in the mental health and disability communities, other concerned people and organizations, and, of course, the people affected by these issues themselves to add our efforts to the many others who have dedicated their lives to furthering practical, reasonable, caring and real solutions to some of the most profound problems facing people with Cognitive Differences in Colorado & around the World today.  

                    While LAWS change from State to State and Country to Country, the significant Biological Challenges some people face are very similar.
                       
 vcorzine@orchidadvocacy.org

303-547-2654
(please leave your e-mail on the phone message so I may respond by e-mail -- Val)

​Other Systemic Interests: 

• AdSeg (Administrative Segregation/Solitary) in CO Jails
  • Important work has been done on HB 21-1211 -- Regulation of Restrictive Housing in Jails
  • See also the 2024 CO HB24-1054 Jail Standards Commission Recommendations
    
    
• People w/ Mental Illness, etc. looking at long sentences based on prior convictions as a result of State failure to provide Housing and Adequate Services.
  
• Improper labeling of people with "Anti-Social Personality Disorder." 

1.   Olmstead

• The 1999 US Supreme Court Case holding that unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities amounts to discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• We want a Colorado Olmstead Plan with specific measurable goals in line with the Minnesota Court-Ordered Olmstead Plan.
• We want Reasonable Plans to bring Housing & Services to Scale to Meet the Need in Line with the 2010 US Dept. of Justice Delaware Findings Letter as well as US Health Agency and World Health Organization basic public health principles.

2. Olmstead as a Global Model

• Olmstead has a lot to recommend it as a framework for other countries
  • ​Measurable Goals 
  • Reasonable Time Frames, and
  • Funding to Support the Plan
• BUT there needs to be a lot of work thinking through what is REASONABLE rather ad hoc assessments.

3.  Reasonable Accommodation Plans for Cognitive Disability Fair Housing Issues, including Medicaid funded Assisted Living Residences and Nursing Homes

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Orchid & Individual Advocacy

Orchid discontinued individual services around the 1st of 2020.

In the interim, there was COVID and a spouse with terminal cancer

[Additionally, we do not provide large scale information and referral.  One might try Disability Law Colorado or the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition.]

​Orchid primarily provides information through this website, other websites and reports.

We are interested in collaborating with others on a PRO BONO/PEER SUPPORT PROJECT that would address Homelessness and people with Disabilities.

CDHS Ombudsman for Access to Behavioral Care

JLongtin Law has experience providing Criminal Defense to people with mental illness and other disabilities in the Criminal Justice System. The Firm has in the past represented some @ a reduced rate.

Professional Associations

• American Bar Association
• American Association of Legal & Social Philosophy
  
• Colorado Bar Association
  
• International Society of Therapeutic Jurisprudence
  
• Social Enterprise Alliance