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Kansas' Mental Health Crisis and How to Fix It
The Mental Health System in Kansas is in crisis. The Disability Rights Center of Kansas (DRC) has completed an extensive investigation of the Mental Health System in Kansas and issued a detailed report (see hotlink below) finding that the State of Kansas has violated federal and state law by unlawfully institutionalizing Kansans with mental health needs in institutions called Nursing Facilities for Mental Health (NFMHs).
The combination of three key factors has created this crisis:
1) Kansas state government has forgotten about its obligation under federal and state law to ensure its citizens who are stuck in these NFMH institutions receive advocacy, discharge planning and services to transition out of these institutions and into the most integrated setting in the community;
2) Kansas state government is not doing nearly enough to prevent its citizens from ending up in these institutions in the first place; and
3) The Kansas community mental health system is dramatically underfunded at the same time Kansas has called upon that same system to serve many more Kansans.
The full report is made up of two parts: 1) an Executive Summary detailing many of DRC’s key findings and recommending public policy changes to remedy this crisis, and 2) a full report detailing the results of DRC’s extensive investigation which includes numerous facts, figures and examples demonstrating the extent of this crisis.
Thank you for your attention to this serious crisis in Kansas. We hope you will support our efforts to correct this crisis.