Advocates Respond to U.S. Department of Justice Lawsuit Against State of Maine for Failures in Maine’s Children’s Behavioral Health System

Advocates Respond to U.S. Department of Justice Lawsuit Against State of Maine for Failures in Maine's Children's Behavioral Health System

The suit comes after more than two years of negotiations between the parties

Augusta - Today, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against the State of Maine based on its June 2022 findings that Maine discriminated against youth with disabilities by failing to maintain an adequate system of behavioral health services that prevent institutionalization. The lawsuit comes after settlement negotiations broke down.

"Twenty-five years after the landmark Supreme Court decision Olmstead v. L.C., which found that unnecessarily segregating people with disabilities into institutional settings violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, Maine children and their families are still waiting for a legally compliant behavioral health system. And despite calls for more than a decade to ensure the availability of those services, Maine has failed to do so. Unfortunately, this lawsuit was the necessary result of that continued failure," said Atlee Reilly, Managing Attorney, Disability Rights Maine.

After initially receiving a complaint filed by Disability Rights Maine, the U.S. DOJ conducted a lengthy investigation and found:

• "Maine's community-based behavioral health system fails to provide sufficient services. As a result, hundreds of children are unnecessarily segregated in institutions each year, while other children are at serious risk of entering institutions."
• "Children are unable to access behavioral health services in their homes and communities-services that are part of an existing array of programs that the State advertises to families through its Medicaid program (MaineCare), but does not make available in a meaningful or timely manner."
• "Maine children with behavioral health needs are eligible and appropriate for the range of community-based services the State offers, but either remain in segregated settings or are at serious risk of institutionalization."
• "Families and children in Maine are overwhelmingly open to receiving services in integrated settings. In fact, parents indicated a strong preference that their children receive services at home due to trauma, neglect, and abuse that their children reportedly endured in residential facilities within and outside of Maine."

Those findings should not have been a surprise to the State of Maine, which had been on clear notice of the widespread inadequacy of its community-based behavioral health system for children when a comprehensive assessment concluded, in 2018, that children's behavioral health services were not available when needed, or not available at all. Two years later, a separate independent assessment of the juvenile justice system found that many youth are detained and incarcerated at Long Creek because they could not access appropriate community-based services for their behavioral and mental health needs.

What was true in 2018 remains true today- Maine continues to fail to ensure that children with disabilities have access to the community-based behavioral health services they need in their homes and communities. As a result, children with disabilities in Maine are unnecessarily institutionalized in residential facilities, including at Long Creek and in other residential facilities both inside and outside the state, severing their ties to family and community. This violates their right, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to receive services in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs.

"When kids can access treatment and support close to home, they can stay connected with their families and communities," said ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan. "Unfortunately, for far too long, Maine has not ensured these services. Since 2016, we have been working to address human rights violations at Long Creek, but not enough has been done. Maine must provide its kids the services they need to live healthy and safe lives."

"Maine children with disabilities and their families deserve what the law requires, which is community-based behavioral health services. The failure to provide those services harms children, strains and fragments families, and ripples across communities. Maine can and must step up to meet its obligations with the services the law requires," said Mary Bonauto, Senior Director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders.

As the U.S. DOJ indicated in its complaint,

• "Maine can implement reasonable modifications so that children with behavioral health disabilities can live and thrive in integrated settings instead of entering institutions to access care."
• "But instead of modifying its service system to prevent and resolve unnecessary segregation, Maine has prioritized expanding its institutional services."

Read the DOJ press release.

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