Strengthening Families
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law Inaugurates New Communities Fund and Honors a Board Member:
The Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law has, over the last three decades, cemented themselves as the leading legal advocate for people with mental disabilities in the United States. Fighting through many different avenues, the Bazelon Center advocates for people with mental disabilities to have the opportunity to live a participative life in their community. Working through the courts and Congress, the Bazelon Center has engaged in impact litigation, policy reform, and public education to ensure the rights of people with mental illnesses in all areas of life, including housing, employment, education, health and mental health care, the judiciary, and more. Their self-proclaimed mission statement is to “protect and advance the rights of adults and children who have mental disabilities.”
Their advocacy has been aimed at achieving choice and dignity for people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities. Using the avenues of impact litigation, policy analysis, coalition-building, public information and technical support, the Bazelon Center fights for these specific areas of focus:
-Community Integration
-Strengthening Families
-Access to Mental Health Services
-Access to Justice
-Decriminalization
-Self-Determination
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law believes that people with serious mental disabilities should have access to opportunities in housing, health care, education and employment in their communities. The Bazelon Center also fights for self-determination and choice for people with mental disabilities in areas of voting, economics, treatment, and psychiatric care (instead of these decisions being made for them).
On November 12, 2009, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law will both honor its board member Martha Minow and inaugurate a new Open Communities Fund aimed at integrating people with mental illnesses in their communities.
Martha Minow is now the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Harvard University, an appointment that the Bazelon Center is honoring at an event in Washington D.C. Minow has been a member of the board of trustees of the Bazelon Center since 1991, and was appointed the Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Law in July of this year. At the reception, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law will recognize Minow’s career accomplishments and her work for the Center.
In addition, the Center will also inaugurate its new Open Communities Fund, the next step in their call to action, Still Waiting. The call to action was published on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Olmstead in 1999, which affirmed the right of people with disabilities to receive public services in the most integrated setting. The new initiative will gather funds in order to expand access to supportive housing, launch litigation to apply Olmstead to employment, and expand the Bazelon Center’s work in local communities around the country. The fund will also help to develop new publications for use by local stakeholders. The Fund is just another example of how the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law advocates for people with mental disabilities to be full members of their local communities.
For more information regarding the reception and inauguration, you can visit the Bazelon Center’s invitation and website here.
