Originally posted by Ira Burnim on 03/01/24
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The Bazelon Center submitted a "friend of the court" brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia arguing that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires the District of Columbia to make a mental health rather than a police response to people experiencing a mental health crisis.
The District dispatches medical personnel in response to physical health emergencies, but almost always sends armed police officers to respond to mental health emergencies. As the brief explains. this disparity violates the ADA and it results in avoidable use of force, arrests, incarceration, injury, and death.
Individuals experiencing a heart attack or a diabetic crisis would not expect the police to respond to a call to help them or to be treated as a threat and be handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car. Yet, this is how individuals experiencing a mental health crisis are treated.
The brief argues that a mental health response would relieve overburdened police officers. Moreover, the District would realize cost savings from using mental health workers rather than police as responders. Studies show that it is more costly for communities to send police rather than making an appropriate response.
The brief urges the District to expand its mental health crisis services, including mobile mental health teams, crisis apartments, and respite centers.
The brief, co-authored by the Bazelon Center and BakerHostetler, was filed on behalf of Mental Health America, American Association of People with Disabilities, Bazelon Center, Miriam's Kitchen, Public Defender Service, Total Family Care Coalition, Whitman-Walker Health, The Arc of D.C., Disability Rights D.C, and School Justice Project.
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Ira Burnim
Legal Director
Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Washington DC
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