DOJ says Va. fails to provide community treatment

[IDemo]

Source: Washington Post

By DENA POTTER
The Associated Press
Friday, February 11, 2011; 8:12 PM

RICHMOND, Va. -- The Justice Department says Virginia is violating federal law by needlessly institutionalizing the intellectually disabled and not providing enough community-based treatment.

In a stern warning to the state, the Justice Department gave Virginia officials less than two months to reach an agreement to fix the problems or else the agency said it may sue.

The department began investigating Virginia's largest state-run institution, the Central Virginia Training Center, in 2008. But the probe ballooned into an examination of Virginia's entire system of delivering mental health treatment.

Virginia is one of five states that operates multiple state-run institutions for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021106218.html

[Maine_Nurse]

1. Don't know anything about Va, but it is a fine line...

We are having the reverse problem here. The state government is trying to save $$ by forcing community treatment on people who absolutely need more inpatient time. It is a pretty scary situation for all involved.

[jwirr]

3. If you are talking about the developmentally disabled there is not such

thing as persons who need impatient treatment. My daughter is 55 years old, cannot talk, walk, roll over, dress herself, feed herself (through a tube in her stomach), is diapered, has at least 4 seizures a week. In other words needs total care. She lives in a foster home and attends events in the community, uses community doctors and rides community buses when she needs to be transported.

I also worked as a social worker placing clients in community based services. We had a young man that I thought of as needing institutionalization. I called the state and asked what they thought. They asked me one question,"Is there anything they can do for him that you cannot do in the community?" I had to admit that there was not - he came home and lived out the rest of his days in a foster home that I had worked to create.

My daughter is know in this area as one of about 6 persons who are the worst case scenario as far as health is considered. Our county was also the role model for the entire state. We had every single client in community based living.

Now if you are talking mental illness that is a different situation and they two should never be confused.

[humblebum]

2. Community treatment has a place, but as a substitute for

state run institutions it has been a disaster. It excludes far too many who need confined help and has allowed people such as the Arizona shooter to remain on the streets because the system simply had no place or way to effectively deal with the problem. Community treatment is an overall disaster.

[jwirr]

4. Again I think you are talking about mental illness instead of developmental

disabilities. One involves mental retardation and the other is something entirely different. Us parents worked for years - selling items on street corners, etc. - to get help for our children and this VA stuff is just another effort to take what we earned away for our children. Just another repug cut to the unworthy!!

[humblebum]

5. I have worked in the system for years. It works for some but is

a disaster because it excludes so many. For some, community treatment is a chance to be involved in society, but for many others they are left to live in homeless shelters or on the streets. We need to turn back the clock and improve what we had. The system as it is today is a disgrace.

[jwirr]

6. You are talking about two different groups of people. It has to be a

very poor state that has not taken advantage of community based services and their funding. Yes the mentally ill (not mental retardation) are on the streets - this cut does not refer to them. It refers to people who are under a whole different system.