The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) determined that the State of Nevada violates the civil rights of children with behavioral health disabilities by failing to provide enough community-based services.
The DOJ’s investigation found many children are placed inappropriately in institutional settings in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Because of deficiencies in its community-based service array and the manner in which the state administers its children’s behavioral health system, the state relies on segregated settings to serve children with behavioral health disabilities who could be served in their homes and communities,” the report concludes.
Children frequently faced long stays in residential treatment facilities, often out of the state and far from their homes, according to the report. Of the 480 children placed in residential treatment facilities for behavioral health disabilities, the average stays ranged from nine to 12 months. Additionally, about 27% remained in residential treatment for over a year.
Over 1,700 Nevada children were admitted to a hospital for psychiatric care in the fiscal year 2020, the report states.
The State of Nevada also paid for about 250 children to be placed in facilities out of the state between July 2019 and February 2021, according to the report.
“After carefully reviewing the evidence, we conclude that there is reasonable cause to believe that the State of Nevada violates Title II of the ADA by failing to provide services to children with behavioral health disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division wrote in an open letter to Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford.
The report states government leaders in Nevada are “well aware of these challenges” and admit that many institutional placements can be avoided should the community behavioral health system in the state work as intended.
The DOJ began its investigation on Dev. 17, 2020, after receiving a complaint.
The consumer-focused mental health advocacy group Mental Health America has ranked Nevada as one of the worst states for youth mental health every year since 2015.
The DOJ made a similar finding in Maine in June. In that instance, the department determined that “children with mental health and/or developmental disabilities” were unnecessarily institutionalized in health care settings and the state’s juvenile detention facility.
In May, the DOJ announced a civil rights investigation into the collective mental health services system of Kentucky over questions about the institutionalization of people with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) in the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro area.
In Nevada, the state could face a lawsuit from the DOJ if it fails to reach an agreement on how to resolve the issues raised during the investigation.
“We would like to work with the state to achieve a consensual resolution of the issues raised in this report,” Clarke said in the letter. “We anticipate that these negotiations will, as in most of our cases, result in an agreement to resolve these issues.”
The DOJ has other investigative efforts underway in the mental health industry. It is reportedly investigating the controversial startup Cerebral Inc.
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