Judge: Mentally Ill Should Move From Adult Homes to Neighborhoods - ABC News

finally - Franco Basaglia's ideas shaping a world without "segregation" of those who are mentally challenged... . ...


Judge: Mentally Ill Should Move From Adult Homes to Neighborhoods - ABC News: "Not since the 1980s, when New York closed many of its psychiatric hospitals, has the fate of New York City's mentally ill been in such debate.


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This week, a district court judge in New York ruled that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, all eligible mentally ill people living in adult homes should be offered the chance to move out into their own apartments integrated within the community through a process called 'supported living.'

The money residents already receive on disability would go to pay rent, rather than adult home fees, and a team of social workers, psychiatrists and other health professionals would visit them.

Though the decision only affects New York, national mental health experts saw possible national implications because the decision was an interpretation of federal law and other large cities follow models similar to New York's for housing the mentally ill.

The ruling was a 'dream come true' for one resident of 200-bed adult home in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Indeed, many advocates for the mentally ill hailed the move as a way to improve the lives of people who are stuck for decades, regardless of their level of disability, in complexes that operate like unsupervised nursing homes."