06/23/2026
Mental Health America is deeply concerned by the recent U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinion that threatens to undermine more than 25 years of protections and progress for people with mental health conditions and other disabilities.
The opinion challenges a core disability-rights principle established in statute, regulation, and the courts: needless segregation of people with disabilities is discrimination and they must receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate.
In 1999, the Supreme Court held in Olmstead v. L.C. that unnecessarily isolating or segregating people with disabilities is a form of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since then, as the DOJ legal opinion acknowledges, federal courts have consistently upheld the right of people with mental health conditions and other disabilities to receive services in the most integrated, community-based setting appropriate, rather than being unnecessarily institutionalized.
“Mental Health America was founded by Clifford W. Beers after his own experience of abuse in institutional settings,” said Mental Health America’s interim president and CEO, Pierluigi Mancini, Ph.D. “That legacy grounds our strong belief that people with mental health and substance use conditions deserve dignity, rights, and access to care in the most integrated setting appropriate — supported by robust, high-quality community-based services.”
Read our full statement: https://mhanational.org/news/mental-health-america-statement-on-department-of-justice-memo-undermining-longstanding-protections-for-people-with-mental-health-conditions-and-other-disabilities/
