In response to a 20-page letter from the Department of Justice condemning the commonwealth of Virginia for violating the civil rights of people with disabilities, Gov. Bob McDonnell submitted a budget plan to the Virginia General Assembly to set up crisis stabilization units and mobile crisis teams for intellectually and developmentally disabled individuals in every region of Virginia.
The initiative, developed by the Services Development Committee, a part of the Virginia Association of Community Services Boards, would provide immediate psychiatric care and treatment to individuals with these disabilities, said Debbie Burcham, the executive director of the Chesterfield Community Services Board. The budget plan calls for the allocation of $5 million to this plan.
The crisis stabilization units would provide treatment to individuals with intellectual disabilities such as mental retardation and co-occurring mental illness. When these individuals have mental health crises and cannot function well in their own residences, "we do not have a good system to help them," Burcham said.
A mental health crisis occurs when an individual's behavior creates a risk to himself or to the people he lives with, Burcham said.
The mobile crisis teams will support individuals until they reach the point where they have to be taken to crisis stabilization units, "hopefully to prevent them from going into a CSU or [to] help them [when] coming out of a CSU, to support them and their family members," Burcham said.
Currently, each region in Virginia has its own system to deal with these crises. Burcham said behavioral specialists work to help avoid mental health crises, "but they are not able to respond immediately." Instead, the police may take them to a local hospital, mental health facility or training center.
"Those facilities aren't often the best facilities to treat people with intellectual disabilities," Burcham said. Although the facilities provide care for mental health issues, they are not as prepared to help those with intellectual disabilities.
McDonnell's budget plan submission comes after the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice sent a 20-page letter to McDonnell Feb. 10 providing notice that the commonwealth of Virginia has failed to comply with certain aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In the letter, the Department said the commonwealth has failed to "provide services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs in violation of the ADA." These violations include the commonwealth's failure to supply "a sufficient quantity of community-based alternatives for individuals" and to "use resources already available to expand community-based services," the letter stated.
This has caused harm to individuals with disabilities in Virginia, according to the letter. In the letter, the Department condemns the commonwealth for relying too heavily on expensive and unnecessary institutional care, and suggests it "support people with disabilities in settings appropriate to their needs in a more cost effective manner."
The Virginia Attorney General's Office does not comment on ongoing litigation, Brian Gottstein, spokesperson for the Attorney General, said in an e-mail.
The University only has 400 to 500 students who have disclosed to having a mental disability of varying degrees, said Debbie Berkeley, assistant director of the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center of Student Health. She explained "not very many students [with intellectual disabilities]... have been able to pass the admissions rigorous criteria to get into the University".
Although Berkeley does not think this plan will have a direct impact on students at the University, she said "it definitely will have an impact on students who have family members or who are working with people who have those disabilities."
The vote for the budget plan has yet to be finalized, but Burcham said she is hopeful. "If we are going to serve people better in the community, this is something that we need and will enable us to do a better job," she said.
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