Orchid Note:  We don't necessary agree with everything in the video above, & it's an important perspective.  Law enforcement and for that matter the public in general are often NOT aware of intensive mental health community treatments -- AND often that's because States such as Colorado do not fund them to make them widely available where reasonably medically necessary..

NY Law Enforcement Demands to be Part of Olmstead Discussions

• It is really a scandal that Criminal Justice is NOT a part of Colorado's Community Living/Olmstead Plan
• There is a LOT of COST SHIFTING going on to the Criminal Justice System to handle people with mental illness that we're just supposed to accept that the State's Mental Health System is Too Under-Resourced to deal with.
• We have intensive community mental health treatments such as Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) -- and in Colorado it is greatly restricted, despite the fact that we have thousands of people with mental illness who are homeless and incarcerated. Do all those people need ACT probably not, do we have any kind of wait-list or plan to bring to scale to meet the need as required by DOJ Enforcement Actions?  What do you think? The answer is NO. That is pretty horrific in its own right.
• Law Enforcement is sick of this, people in mental health are sick of this, people with mental illness are sick of this  -- AND on top of all that it violates Federal Civil Rights Law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Olmstead.