Orchid's Take on Colorado's Brand-Spanking New Olmstead Plan
5-Stars for CO's
New Olmstead Plan
Now here's what we want in the next year for the State to comply with Olmstead:
1. Housing as Healthcare as a required Medicaid service to all who qualify for the Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) waiver
(You know & we know that Medicaid doesn't currently cover Housing -- but things are changing -- who ever thought there would be gay marriage and that NY would adopt "housing as healthcare"?)
From Orchid's perspective "housing as healthcare" is legally required under Olmstead.
2. Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) for all who qualify and where it is reasonably medically necessary under the CMHS waiver
Please see our instructive comparison of the HCBS-EBD (Elderly, Blind & Disabled) waiver and the HCBS-CMHS waiver -- they're practically identical so that's parity, equity, we're not discriminating, are we?
Well, actually the State is discriminating because while that array of services does a pretty good job of keeping people with physical disabilities out of the institutions, it has done a pretty poor job keeping people with "mental illness" out of institutions or preventing often brutal homelessness.
3. Bring DOC, the county sheriffs/ jails & the People in those prisons & jails into the Olmstead Planning (institutionalization in prisons and jails is a far greater problem than mental hospitals)