The U.S. Supreme Count case, L.C. vs. Olmstead, has been around for over ten years but its full meaning as yet to be realized.  The case basically says that the ADA gives people with disabilities the right not to be unnecessarily segregated.  Just as the government cannot tell all people of a race or religion that they have to live in one place, it can't require people with disabilities to all live together (say, in a nursing home or state training center) in order to receive services.

Just to clear it up right away, the "Olmstead Act" was passed by Congress in 1909 and addressed the authority of the U.S. President over the affairs of Puerto Rico.  Many people use "Olmstead Act" to refer to L.C. vs. Olmstead.  In fact, so many do it that a Google search using "Olmstead Act" results almost entirely in stuff about the ADA case.  This drives me to distraction.  But I digress....

In the last two years, the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) has taken a much more active role in enforcing Olmstead.  One result is a recent Settlement Agreement between the U.S. and Georgia.  In the agreement, Georgia agreed to stop putting people with developmental disabilities in its state hospitals and, instead, create a system of community services to assist them.  It also agreed to build a more comprehensive community mental health system including new 'Assertive Community Treatment Teams," "Community Support Teams," "Intensive Case Management Teams," "Crisis Service Centers," housing, employment, peer services and more.

Fairly soon after completing the settlement in Georgia, USDOJ sent a letter to Oregon saying that it was starting an investigation of how our state is complying with Olmstead.  DRO has asserted for years that Oregon does not do a good job on Olmstead.  We have sued the state a number of times on behalf of state hospital patients who are not discharged for months and years even though the hospital says the patients are no longer needing hospital-level care.  We continue to monitor patients who are stuck in the hospital while a convoluted placement process in which there is no ultimate authority bumbles along.

Oregon has just - just -  started a effort to reform how it uses its community residential beds.  They call it "Aim High."  Oregon still does not have an "Olmstead Plan" which many states have to show how they are working to get people out of state hospitals.  DRO has had to use court action and the threat of court action in local communities that fight to keep people with mental disabilities from living in their neighborhoods.  The state has never asserted these rights for patients. 

Lastly, in the midst of severe budget cuts, Oregon plans to build a new, large state hospital in Junction City.  The cost of operating this "big box" in the middle of a field in the Willamette Valley has to come from somewhere.  Will it come from school budgets?  State police?  Corrections?  Or, maybe, the desperately strapped community mental health budget?  If community mental health is cut to staff Junction City, Oregon will be the anti-Olmstead state: it will create a structure of unnecessary segregation of individuals with mental disabilities.

In sum, Oregon has been and remains content to leave people in expensive, unnecessary state hospital beds.  It is planning for an even greater emphasis on segregated care.  This is why USDOJ is back for more investigation.