South Carolina has agreed to expand community-based mental health services after the U.S. Justice Department concluded the state illegally segregated adults with serious mental illness in institutional care. The settlement resolves findings that South Carolina violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead v. L.C. decision by relying on Community Residential Care Facilities, also known as adult care homes, instead of providing services in the most integrated setting appropriate to people’s needs.
A Justice Department investigation found roughly 2,000 adults with serious mental illness living in the facilities, often for long periods. Some residents stayed for years or decades, even though state officials acknowledged many could live successfully in the community with adequate support. Federal investigators said gaps in housing, crisis services and intensive treatment left institutional care as the default option.
Under the agreement, the state will expand intensive community mental health treatment, supportive housing and peer support services, make mobile crisis response available in all parts of the state, and identify people living in or referred to the facilities who want to receive care in the community. The state also agreed to provide case management and connect individuals to services based on their needs and choices. “The Department and South Carolina are working together to ensure that people with serious mental illnesses can be served in the community when they want to be,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
The Justice Department and South Carolina filed court papers to dismiss the federal complaint while the state carries out the settlement, which will be monitored as it is implemented.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://wach.com/news/local/south-carolina-agrees-to-major-mental-health-changes-after-civil-rights-probe-department-of-justice-mental-health-residential-care-facilities-institutionalized-harmeet-dhillon-doj