US Justice Department says Kentucky may be violating federal law for lack of mental health services

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky is likely violating federal law for failing to provide community-based services to adults in Louisville with serious mental illness, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a report issued Tuesday.

The 28-page DOJ report said the state “relies unnecessarily on segregated psychiatric hospitals to serve adults with serious mental illness who could be served in their homes and communities.”

The Justice Department said it would work with the state to remedy the report’s findings. But if a resolution cannot be reached, the government said it could sue Kentucky to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“People with serious mental illnesses in Louisville are caught in an unacceptable cycle of repeated psychiatric hospitalizations because they cannot access community-based care,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a release Tuesday. Clarke, who works in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, also led an i nvestigation into civil rights violations by the city’s police department.

The report said admissions to psychiatric hospitals can be traumatizing, and thousands are sent to those facilities in Louisville each year. More than 1,000 patients had multiple admissions in a year, and some spent more than a month in the hospitals, the report said.

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