Blog Archives

THE NEED FOR FEDERAL LEADERSHIP TO ADDRESS UNCERTIFIED "GRAVELY DISABLED" -- THE ANSWER IS NOT CERTIFICATION

7/29/2019

So all of this has a great deal to do with:

folks with cognitive disabilities that have mental illness
brain injury
substance issues, and
developmental disabilities

AND

are homeless or @ great risk of homelessness
involved with CHILD WELFARE
involved with and or @ great risk of involvement with the Criminal Justice System

WestWord did a story recently on how "insanity" isn't just a plea for murderers anymore. The ax murderer or Aurora Theater shooter is who we often think of as the person with mental illness in the Criminal Justice System.

There are thousands of people with MI & Brain Injury & Substance Issues in the Criminal Justice System while Incompetent to Proceed and Insanity are strictly construed.

CO Medicaid Providers & the CO Dept. of Health Care Policy and Financing have no idea how @ risk these folks are, even as Medicaid's own providers are pursuing harassment charges.

Further, most Medicaid folks are not familiar with the TONE of JUDGES towards people with disabilities, MOST IMPORTANTLY in the JUDGE's SENTENCING.

All those THOUSANDS of people with cognitive disabilities didn't go to prison by accident. AND every little prior builds on itself.

We've got to get really honest about what it takes to keep people with cognitive disabilities out of the Criminal Justice System.

So the conservative Treatment Advocacy Center as well as the Mental Illness Policy Organization have been big proponents of certification and assisted outpatient certification -- which Colorado has.
Further, Colorado state officials have in the past backed amendments to Colorado's certification statutes broadening the definition of "gravely disabled." This has been supported by a number of Colorado organizations including Mental Health Colorado and NAMI Colorado.
Similar actions have been taken in other states.

Certification statutes are State Statutes.

On the other hand, the following are Federal Statutes:

The Medicaid Act, including Medicaid Network Adequacy
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act [reasonable accommodations]
The Americans with Disabilities Act [including Olmstead and "reasonable accommodations of policy, practice & procedure"]
The Federal Fair Housing Act [reasonable accommodations]
Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act of 2008

Further, broad concepts such as "reasonable accommodations" and "parity" require an enormous amount of guidance.

We favor highly detailed but flexible Federal data-driven templates for States to comply with, and state ability to request data-driven modifications of such detailed templates if not contrary to law .

It is a lot easier to work off something -- than to create it out of whole-cloth.

A HUGE, COMPLICATED issue is FAIR HOUSING as it relates to Medicaid State Agencies, Medicaid Providers and people with cognitive disabilities.

Colorado & Most States are NOT complying with:

Olmstead (1999) -- most States are very aware of Olmstead, or
The Federal Fair Housing Act (1968); Amendments (1988)

[CO's Dept. of Health Care Policy & Financing is NOT familiar with the Federal Fair Housing Act even though it directly impacts their agency, placement providers, case managers and consumers -- Further, a lot of this does relate to the INFORMATION OVERLOAD that is stressing the entire society.]

So there are a lot of things going on with regard to these issues. Resources being a HUGE issue.

Nobody knows better than we do that accommodations can take resources, especially in light of the fact we recently had a situation figuratively "blow up" on us when we didn't have the resources to make the accommodations needed for an individual.

There are a lot of practical aspects to this that need to be worked through -- Technical Assistance Centers could really help with that. We don't need to re-invent the wheel in 50 States -- but we do need to give States the opportunity to make data-driven modifications if not contrary to the law.

Gravely Disabled

Ethics & The Current System

7/27/2019

When we think about problems with the Mental Health System 2 Common issues that come up are:

Civil Commitment Statutes, and
HIPAA

Neither of these issues really gets to the root cause of most problems.

If there are sufficient:

housing
placements,
services, and
reasonable accommodations --

The rest is largely moot. When there aren't -- providers, family members and attorneys have a lot of hard choices to make.

We've learned the hard way how difficult it is to make the decision to file a petition for court-ordered evaluation even when the grounds may exist -- time, resources, unnecessary further upset, etc.

We've talked some on this page about what the goal is -- and not mistaking the "means" as the end. The goal is NOT certification.

The goal is adequate placements and services and avoidance of homelessness and criminal justice involvement.

That is not cut and dry. AND most importantly, are we going to do more harm than good?

That is the difficult problem many providers, family members and attorneys are faced with.

So the ultimate answer is not Civil Commitment Statutes that providers, family members and even attorneys may feel could make the situation worse.

But providers, family members, attorneys and the communities need VIABLE alternatives. Right now we don't have too many alternatives. That is why so many people rotate in and out of the Criminal Justice System despite being on Medicaid and often dumped by their providers.

HCPF [Colorado's Dept. of Health Care Policy & Financing] has not sufficiently addressed this.

BUILDING HOUSING, INFRASTRUC-TURE with skin in the game

7/24/2019

Affordable Housing is a big problem for people in Colorado and other large urban and rural areas in the US and around the world, and for people with physical and cognitive disabilities.

Further, HOUSING is one of the MOST IMPORTANT social determinants of health.

Social Impact Bonds are one way to seek financing, government funding, foundations, large donors, medium-sized donors, small donors, and micro donors should be part of the mix as well.

Imagine a world in which we're all more interested in HOME IMPROVEMENT & TAKING CARE OF EACH OTHER & EXPANDING OUR HOME IMPROVEMENT BUSINESSES & RELATED BUSINESSES.

Further, this new housing should take into account climate change -- not only what we build technologically but also where we build -- not along the coast of Florida or coast of Bangladesh.

Is that FANTASY going to pan out -- well probably not totally -- but things could be and should be a lot better than they are.

INTEGRATING AMERICAN CONSERVATISM WITH AMERICAN PROGRESS--IVISM: "STATECRAFT AS SOULCRAFT"

7/24/2019

So we think one of the things Americans have learned is that their leaders are IMPERFECT, and sometime later Americans realized they themselves were imperfect as well -- not as a result of being an American but as the result of being human.

When Will talks about confidence in government going down 60% since the 1970s -- Americans have been having a sometimes traumatic encounter with reality:

JFK & Camelot weren't what people thought they were (just one of many examples in US history -- there are many across the globe)
Wars have limited ability to solve complex problems (generally, the people who now understand that the best today are or have been in the military -- which isn't to say self defense isn't important)
Human beings are a lot more complex and diverse than we thought -- and that has a lot of implications for government.

P.S. We're pretty sure Will's continued admonition that Government is not meant to address "Orchids" is referring to houseplants not our incredibly ingenious symbol for people. Fortunately or unfortunately, our symbol is not unique and appears to be used to symbolize several other vulnerable groups by other non-profits.

So nobody really has a monopoly on "good ideas." Further, many Americans really do appreciate:

Separation of Powers
"Natural Rights"
The "Ameliorative" Role of Government,
Cost, and
The "scope" and "competence" of their government [& their economies]

So whether "conservatives" or "progressives," nobody generally likes to be ignored. There is good research on this.

The "deliberative bodies" have really been insufficient to address this -- because the incentives favor majorities, and things tend to swing back and forth as one group or many groups gets fed up with being ignored.

The answer to this is INCLUSION of those most impacted by the policies under discussion and who feel excluded. It is not easy and it is not perfect, but neither is democracy.

Democracy can have a healing effect. One of the places we learned that was George Will's "Statecraft as Soulcraft."

THE FEDS, STATES & MH CENTERS HAVE BEEN COST SHIFTING PEOPLE WITH INTENSIVE MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS FOR DECADES

7/21/2019

THAT'S FALLEN VERY HEAVILY ON JAILS, HOSPITALS, NON-PROFITS, FAMILIES, COMMUNITIES & BUSINESSES

Nobody wants another debacle like MENTAL HEALTH DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION.
On the other hand, we can't have the GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS that are pretty much STANDARD PRACTICE for people with cognitive disabilities in the CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM either.

The concerns and interests of people with long term intensive mental health needs are generally different than that of individuals with "lived experience of mild to moderate mental illness."
Mental Health Centers have been a VERY BAD ALTERNATIVE for people with INTENSIVE MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS. It is the Mental Health Centers that are often filing the restraining order or calling the police on the person rather than seeking a 72-hour hold or petition for court-ordered evaluation..
Mental Health Centers are NOT UP to the TRANSFORMATION THAT IS NEEDED & Many People and Family Members don't TRUST them anyway.

CMS and States like Colorado need to FUND a comprehensive CONTINUUM of CARE for people with LONG TERM INTENSIVE MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS [& OTHER COGNITIVE DISABILITIES] that includes:

Specific Criteria & Definitions for Mental Health Institute Placement
Specific Criteria & Definitions for Residential Services
Specific Criteria & Definitions for Nursing Home Placement [Most people don't want to be in a nursing home -- some do]
Specific Criteria & Definitions for Assisted Living Placement
Specific Criteria & Definitions for Other Placement Alternatives
Specific Criteria & Definitions for Assertive Community Treatment
Specific Criteria& Definitions for Intensive Case Management
Specific Criteria & Definitions Scattered Site Supportive Housing 
Etc.

It is the people with long term intensive needs that Olmstead was trying to address 20 years ago -- and we still haven't done it.

Spiral Staircase of a Lighthouse by Design Pics, Inc

NPR (July 12, 2019):

ACLU is urging counties not to build new jails or add more beds in Colorado --thedenverchannel.com

Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program

CO Medicaid's Fair Housing problem for people with cognitive disabilities

7/19/2019

THE CURSE OF FLEXIBILITY IN THE LAW &
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS

So there are all kinds of BROAD concepts that are used in the law --- such as "EQUITABLE," "JUST," "DUE PROCESS," etc.
   The big, broad concept that runs through Disability Civil Rights Law is "Reasonable Accommodation."
Well -- who is against that? On the other hand, who knows what it means?
It may be relatively clear right now what reasonable accommodation means for a physical disability -- although there are still plenty of wrongs to be righted in that area.
When we are talking about cognitive disability --- many of the most well meaning organizations don't have a clue. Further, that does include government -- it can also include disability rights organizations themselves.
So this isn't a problem of -- not wanting to do the right thing. It is a problem of not knowing what to do.
Even beyond that -- it is feeling unsure about what is "reasonable."
  So especially when we are talking about Cognitive Disability/Difference -- there may have already been an official determination or group assessment -- that the person is "unreasonable."
  So the group may very well be committed to complying with the LAW but:

they may not even know various Disability Civil Rights Laws exist, and
even if they do know various laws exist-- what is "reasonable" for "reasonable accommodations" for people with Cognitive Disabilities -- if the person is proposing the "accommodation" is that by definition "unreasonable" ????

    In the Mental Health Provider context and Housing and Placement context -- a big issue is Emotional Dysregulation.
The vast majority of people experiencing some type of serious emotional dysregulation are not dangerous and not a direct threat but even there the law requires the use of "reasonable accommodations" to address the concerns if possible.
Why is that? Because these people will probably be even more dangerous and even more of a direct threat if they don't have access to services and housing.
   BUT again while people who are dangerous and a direct threat do exist and they should be addressed through voluntary inpatient or outpatient treatment, 72-hour holds or petitions for court-ordered evaluations -- they are NOT the VAST MAJORITY of people with serious emotional dysregulation.
  The vast majority of people with severe emotional dysregulation are not a direct threat but many them are "gravely disabled."
  Colorado as with many states has included "gravely disabled" in its civil commitment statutes for decades -- and the idea was to address the issues faced by many homeless people with mental illness.

  Unfortunately, Colorado inpatient facilities are horribly stressed themselves -- so even if one gets the person to the inpatient facility -- the facility is very unlikely to keep person or to pursue either an inpatient or outpatient certification.
Further, that is not just my experience -- it is also the experience of a former psychiatrist with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

   Okay, well -- now who is the service provider -- the Medicaid mental health case manager and "regional accountable entity" that works from 8 to 5 and doesn't do nights or weekends.
  You can always call 911.

This is so ridiculously DANGEROUS for the COMMUNITY & THE PERSON -- mainly for the PERSON.
Well, we're going to the top -- the State. Do they want to help -- yes. Do they know how to -- not really.

   So we know that:

there is a lack of bed space,
there is a lack of housing,
the person doesn't want to be hospitalized
and the inpatient facility really isn't the "least restrictive environment" anyway

So we're going to focus on an assisted living or nursing home placement until we can get housing within a reasonable time -- say 90 days.
Well, we can't get a placement because neither the placements, case managers nor the State have heard of FAIR HOUSING. They are not against it-- they just don't know what it is.
So 2 BIG components of Cognitive Disability can be:

Disorganization, and
Emotional Dysregulation

Now almost all human beings are going to experience some disorganization or emotional dysregulation in their lifetimes and even on a regular basis.
It is when the human beings are:

unable to keep themselves housed or
out of the slammer or
others around them are saying "THERE IS NO EXCUSE" for being so disorganized or emotionally dysregulated.

It is pretty likely the person is struggling with a cognitive disability or difference.
BUT that still doesn't answer the question of what is a "reasonable accommodation." Further, when we need to answer this question is often in very stressful situations -- SO NOBODY IS REALLY @ THEIR BEST.

So we need a non-exhaustive list of potential accommodations for people with Cognitive Disabilities. That work has been done by the federally-funded Job Accommodation Network and that can be modified for different settings.

It is amazing how requested accommodations coming from an OFFICIAL SOURCE seem so much more reasonable than the very same requests coming from a person with a cognitive disability or difference.

Via Mental Health Association of Portland [Oregon]

Image Credit: abilityJobs.com

askjan.org

Fair Housing & Mental Illness

Gravely Disabled

Behavioral Health: THE ULTIMATE TEST OF INTEGRATION & INDIVIDUALIZED MEDICINE

7/18/2019

So if we really consider the ultimate barrier to effective Mental Health Treatment -- it has been incomplete knowledge.
Because the stakes have seemed so high -- both for the individual and the society -- there has been a lot of FEAR in acknowledging that.
Psychotherapy and psychiatric medication can be helpful -- they can also be harmful or largely irrelevant.
In any case, they are ridiculously incomplete if one views mental health concerns as implicating not only the brain but most of the systems of the body, including:

metabolism
the immune system
the endocrine system
the gut
the microbiome
etc.

We have a mental health crisis for a lot of reasons -- we are not able to effectively deal with it -- because the treatments aren't very effective --- and that is very scary for this society.
So much is happening on the research front and Clinicians seem so far behind.
The BOTTOM LINE: We can't afford this mental health crisis -- it is already outstripping the resources of families, states and the federal government.
We have to have a MAJOR PUSH for Translational Integrated Medicine to bring the research to clinicians in ways they can use. That is probably going to involve much more sophisticated databases beyond pubmed.

THE GENTEEL, SMALL-TOWN CORRUPTION OF MEDICAID MENTAL HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

7/17/2019

CASE IN POINT: COLORADO
(THERE ARE MANY OTHERS)

One of the Google employees in the video above makes the telling point that if we don't address "unconscious bias" --- our products won't be as good and we won't be as innovative as we could be or should be.

So first -- we don't expect 500-member Task Forces.

On the other hand, we do expect these Stakeholder Groups to include a significant percentage of "individuals" with mental health issues/not organizations that would actually be impacted.

Further, these individuals should be able to access whatever advocacy and legal advisers that are willing and available. State officials and providers will be doing that -- individuals impacted should have that right as well.

We don't think anyone who is currently on Gov. Polis' Behavioral Health Task Force should lose their spot -- we do think that 1/5 of the spots on each of the committees should include individuals actually impacted by the policies discussed.

Corruption is NOT just a problem in "capitalism." It is a problem of human systems whatever they are.

One of the ways we guard against it is INCLUSION.

That has been a big problem in Colorado. It is a big problem in Gov. Polis' Behavioral Health Task Force.

STRUCTURAL CHANGE VERSUS CARETAKING POLICYMAKING: IS THERE AN ARISTOTELIAN MEAN?

7/15/2019

Most problems have systemic components.

Politicians sometimes perceive these "systemic components" as very threatening to their majorities, to their power and/or popularity.

Most people know there is not going to be overnight change -- on the other hand no one wants the continued stagnation of the middle and lower economic classes that has gone on for decades. That is a pretty BIG "SOCIAL DETERMINANT of HEALTH."

Additionally, getting caught up in debates on Capitalism vs. Socialism is about as productive as debating Free Will vs. Determinism --- it can waste a whole lot of time, and really miss the practical issues.

DATA is something Colorado State Government has excelled at and it is unfortunate there has been fear to get the data on mental health and other cognitive disabilities in the Criminal Justice System. That DATA is critical if Colorado is going to have Medicaid Network Adequacy -- which it currently doesn't have with respect to Mental Health and Brain Injury, maybe other areas as well.

If things are going well, generally people aren't that worried about "INCLUSION" -- it is when they have been "F---ed Up" for decades that people get concerned.

Quite frankly, the only reason I and others are interested in these systems is because they are so messed up.

The US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) had it right:

Measurable Goals
Reasonable Time Frames, &
Funding to Support the Plan

P.S. In a DOJ Settlement Agreement, the State was required to set aside 1/5 membership for peers in a government group impacting the lives of people with disabilities.

Further, there is a broad range of concerns for people with mental illness, if the state is focused on the Criminal Justice System -- they need people with mental illness who have been incarcerated in the Criminal Justice

Another PS: Ignoring Federal Disability Civil Rights Laws is NOT a legal, ethical or moral "Aristotelian Mean."

Below, Oregon's US Dept. Of Justice Stakeholder Advisory Team is required to have 20% individuals with lived experience. Further, the Oregon Plan does include criminal justice.

2. OHA will maintain a system for accountability for the performance outcomes specified in Section D of this Plan, by including the following elements of OHA's USDOJ Project governance structure:

a, USDOJ Agreement Stakeholder Advisory Team: composed of a cross section of diverse stakeholders, including a minimum of 20% individuals with lived experience, to review and comment on the progress towards and performance of the outcomes specified in Section D and provide advice to OHA regarding the strategies being employed,

b. Olmstead Plan Stakeholder Team: composed of membership from the Addictions and Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council's I-lousing and Olmstead Subcommittee, USDOJ Agreement Stakeholder Advisory Team, OSH Community Reintegration Committee and Oregon Consumer Advisory Council (OCAC) to review and comment on the progress towards and performance of the outcomes specified in Section D and provide advice to OHA regarding the strategies being employed.

Click Here

the failure of the 20-year-old CO Legislative Committee on Mental Illness in Criminal Justice is one of many desperately inadequate measures of the State

7/14/2019

COLORADO’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS.

WILL THE STATE CHANGE ITS APPROACH?

LAWMAKERS WONDER WHETHER THE STATE TASK FORCE THAT STUDIES THE ISSUE AND RECOMMENDS SOLUTIONS SHOULD BE RENEWED

CO State Senator Rhonda Fields, Assistant Majority Leader

CO State Representative Adrienne Benevidez, Majority Co-Whip

CO State Representative Jonathan Singer, Chair of Public Health Care & Human Services Committee

Moses Gur, Director of Policy and Member Engagement for the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council (CBHC).

Val's Take

I think what happens when the community, state or nation is confronted with a difficult problem impacting a disenfranchised, often disfavored minority -- Laws are passed, re-stated in many various forms as it becomes obvious the intent of the original law is being ignored.

This has happened in a big way for people with cognitive disabilities, certainly mental health.

Right now, we have:

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
the Americans with Disabilities Act
the US Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead (1999), subsequent caselaw & US Dept. of Justice guidance
The Federal Fair Housing Act
State Fair Housing Law
Federal Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act of 2008
Medicaid Network Adequacy
Etc.

So when Moses Gur says we need "direction" from the Legislature -- it is not really legal direction -- its political direction.

As for data, the reason lawmakers don't have it is because previous administrations have been POLITICALLY AFRAID of it.

[As a matter of full disclosure: Adrienne Benevidez was a great boss @ Riggs Abney Law Firm where Val worked briefly about 20 years ago before Val joined The Legal Center for People with Disabilities & Older People, now Disability Law Colorado. Those opportunities ultimately led to Orchid. ]

Officials agree that growing numbers of people with mental health disorders in Colorado’s criminal justice system is a crisis.

But, in a hearing this week at the Capitol, several lawmakers said that the 20-year-old task force set up to help address that challenge has been hamstrung by a lack of staff, a lack of authority and a lack of data and resources to answer some basic questions about the effectiveness of the state’s approach.

Some of those lawmakers said they’re leaning toward voting against reauthorizing the committee when its charge expires in a year.

Task force members presented Tuesday to lawmakers at the Capitol, highlighting the group’s achievements but also confessing at multiple turns that the 32 people who comprise the group — including mental health professionals, law enforcement officials and judges — sometimes aren’t sure what their collective purpose is.

The task force’s chairs said they lacked data to respond to a number of questions from lawmakers.

They also said the group is limited in how blunt it can be in its guidance to the legislature, because some members represent state agencies and are afraid to support certain recommendations that might contradict their bosses’ goals.

“It just seems like the task force is somewhat in this paralyzed, stagnated situation,” said state Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat who serves on the bipartisan oversight group.

“It sounds like the task force is floundering based on political stuff. And we just don’t have time for that.”

Fields said she’s inclined to vote to end the task force. But she and the rest of the oversight committee have time to think that through.

The task force was formed in 1999 as an attempt by lawmakers to better understand and respond to the increasing presence of people with behavioral and mental health disorders in jails and prisons, or otherwise interacting with the criminal justice system.

In the late ‘90s, state officials estimated that about one in 10 people held in state Department of Corrections facilities suffered from such disorders. Today they estimate it’s closer to half.

“If the intent (of the task force) was to reduce these numbers,” said Rep. Adrienne Benavidez, an Adams County Democrat and oversight committee member, “we’ve failed miserably.”

Benavidez, who said she’s also torn about whether to reauthorize, didn’t blame the task force. She partially attributed the increased presence of people with mental health issues in the criminal justice system on the societal shift to more aggressively and specifically diagnose mental illness.

But she also blamed the increase on systemic neglect of the individuals the task force is meant to serve.

The task force has worked on many successful bills over the years, including recent measures to provide housing vouchers to people suffering from mental illness upon release from incarceration; to clarify what exactly it means to be mentally unfit to stand trial; and to ensure that various state agencies and officials better coordinate delivery of medication to people in custody.

“If the intent (of the task force) was to reduce these numbers, we’ve failed miserably.” — Rep. Adrienne Benavidez

But, in light of the general increase in the affected population’s presence in jails and prisons, Fields wondered whether more could be done to divert vulnerable people away from the system to begin with.

“I’d like to see us work somewhat upstream, so that first of all we’re not incarcerating young people because they have a mental behavioral disorder,” she said, before asking the task force chair to share data that shows whether the state is making any progress in this area as compared to 20 years ago.

“We would like that information as well,” said the chair, Moses Gur of the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council. “We don’t have any mechanism to collect our own data. … We’ve been asking ourselves the very same questions.”

That’s a big part of the problem with this group, several lawmakers agreed. Rep. Jonathan Singer, a Longmont Democrat, said the lack of relevant data to inform decision-making on this front is unsurprising, given that the task force has no dedicated employees.

“This is all unpaid time, or state departments allocating their members to be a part of this,” he said.

Singer asked the task force’s leaders to describe their “a-ha moments” since joining the group. One of them said her biggest “a-ha” takeaway is that, in general, there’s now strong consensus that there is a mental health crisis within the criminal justice system.

Moses Gur said the question now is how the task force, if and when it is reauthorized, can be empowered to more effectively address the crisis.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear to us,” he said, “that we need some direction from (lawmakers).”

Said a skeptical Fields, “The way you guys have described the reauthorization, I’d think that I’d be reauthorizing the same old thing. … It feels like a wheel that’s spinning in mud, where there’s no much traction going on.”

<<Previous

Val's Blog

THE NEED FOR FEDERAL LEADERSHIP TO ADDRESS UNCERTIFIED "GRAVELY DISABLED" -- THE ANSWER IS NOT CERTIFICATION

Ethics & The Current System

BUILDING HOUSING, INFRASTRUC-TURE with skin in the game

INTEGRATING AMERICAN CONSERVATISM WITH AMERICAN PROGRESS--IVISM: "STATECRAFT AS SOULCRAFT"

THE FEDS, STATES & MH CENTERS HAVE BEEN COST SHIFTING PEOPLE WITH INTENSIVE MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS FOR DECADES

THAT'S FALLEN VERY HEAVILY ON JAILS, HOSPITALS, NON-PROFITS, FAMILIES, COMMUNITIES & BUSINESSES

CO Medicaid's Fair Housing problem for people with cognitive disabilities

THE CURSE OF FLEXIBILITY IN THE LAW &
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS

Behavioral Health: THE ULTIMATE TEST OF INTEGRATION & INDIVIDUALIZED MEDICINE

THE GENTEEL, SMALL-TOWN CORRUPTION OF MEDICAID MENTAL HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

CASE IN POINT: COLORADO
(THERE ARE MANY OTHERS)

STRUCTURAL CHANGE VERSUS CARETAKING POLICYMAKING: IS THERE AN ARISTOTELIAN MEAN?

the failure of the 20-year-old CO Legislative Committee on Mental Illness in Criminal Justice is one of many desperately inadequate measures of the State

COLORADO’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS.

WILL THE STATE CHANGE ITS APPROACH?

LAWMAKERS WONDER WHETHER THE STATE TASK FORCE THAT STUDIES THE ISSUE AND RECOMMENDS SOLUTIONS SHOULD BE RENEWED

Author

Archives

Categories

Val's Blog

THAT'S FALLEN VERY HEAVILY ON JAILS, HOSPITALS, NON-PROFITS, FAMILIES, COMMUNITIES & BUSINESSES

THE CURSE OF FLEXIBILITY IN THE LAW &REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS

CASE IN POINT: COLORADO (THERE ARE MANY OTHERS)

​COLORADO’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS. WILL THE STATE CHANGE ITS APPROACH?

​LAWMAKERS WONDER WHETHER THE STATE TASK FORCE THAT STUDIES THE ISSUE AND RECOMMENDS SOLUTIONS SHOULD BE RENEWED

Author

Archives

Categories

THE CURSE OF FLEXIBILITY IN THE LAW &
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS

CASE IN POINT: COLORADO
(THERE ARE MANY OTHERS)

COLORADO’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS.

WILL THE STATE CHANGE ITS APPROACH?

LAWMAKERS WONDER WHETHER THE STATE TASK FORCE THAT STUDIES THE ISSUE AND RECOMMENDS SOLUTIONS SHOULD BE RENEWED