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Mental Health Association of R.I. kicks off series of town halls today

Providence Journal - 9/29/2020

PROVIDENCE – Community leaders were to discuss disability rights and services Tuesday afternoon at the first of three virtual town halls this autumn sponsored by the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island.

Tuesday's session will explore why Rhode Island needs its own Olmstead Plan. According to the association, the U.S. Supreme Court "ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that states have a legal obligation to ensure that people with disabilities can live, work, and receive support services in the least restrictive setting possible."

The majority opinion in that case was written by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Association executive director Laurie-Marie Pisciotta wrote in a media release that "Rhode Island is one of only 7 states without an Olmstead Plan, and this has a direct impact on the lives of older adults and people with serious persistent mental illness, physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities.

"Our failure to plan for our most vulnerable Rhode Islanders leaves many of them to live in institutions like nursing homes, prison, and homeless shelters when they could be living in the community in supportive housing or at home with services."

Joining Pisciotta starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday will be Bob Cooper, from the Governor's Commission on Disabilities; Mental Health Advocate Megan Clingham; Marc Anthony Gallucci, with Ocean State Center for Independent Living; and Robert Marshall, with the Rhode Island Developmental Disabilities Council.

The second virtual forum in the series will be Oct. 28, when the topic will be "the criminalization of mental illness and how the prison is Rhode Island's largest psychiatric institution with 400-plus seriously mentally ill inmates incarcerated due to symptoms of their mental illness."

Last, on a date in November still to be determined, will be funding strategies for an Olmstead Plan.

To register for a virtual town hall visit https://bit.ly/3iepc1U

gwmiller@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7380

On Twitter: @gwaynemiller

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