Executive Summary

The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law fights in the courts and at every level of government for people with mental illness to get the services they need to thrive. We are lawyers to the grassroots movement of people with mental illness seeking services, dignity, and justice in the United States. Since its inception, the Bazelon Center has been committed to the leadership of people with mental illness, who are often ignored by the mental health system and those in power. People with mental illness are board members, staff, donors, and partners. We are in constant dialogue with leaders in the psychiatric survivor/peer movements.

Over five decades, we have won landmark cases in the Supreme Court that empowered people with mental illness and gave them more services. We played a role in the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We helped expand the mental health services available through Medicaid and Medicare and federal funding for affordable housing. We have influenced the agenda of the U.S. Department of Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, and Housing and Urban Development. Settlements and rulings in our cases have benefited tens of thousands of adults and children and created roadmaps for reform of K-12 education, mental health systems, employment and housing for people with mental illness. Much of our work now is focused on having health care and peer workers respond to people experiencing a mental health crisis instead of the police.

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