Key Issues in Advocacy
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Image Description: Text states “Free them all includes folks incarcerated in psychiatric facilities” on a window screen. A dark-skinned person with brown hair in a braid sits in a wheelchair staring out the window at the words
#FREETHEMALL INCLUDES PSYCHIATRIC FACILITIES
#FreeThemAll includes folks incarcerated in psychiatric facilities and nursing homes. Abolition of our institutions must not leave behind our Disabled, our mad, our sick, our elderly community members — trapped and left to die inside of congregate settings like psychiatric institutions, residential schools, group homes, and nursing homes— “for their own benefit.”
1/3 of all COVID deaths in the US are nursing home residents or workers (particularly Black and brown folks). While we don’t have accurate numbers for folks in psychiatric facilities, we know COVID has disproportionately affected “patients” and workers at these facilities, as well.
Make no mistake. This is eugenics. This is genocide. There is no reform. The answer is to #FreeThemAll and abolish these institutions.
Mass ACT is actively working with advocates at the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee + the Disability Law Center in Massachusetts to launch a class-action lawsuit against the state for its poor management of conditions inside its facilities. Connecticut and the District of Columbia have also filed suits.
On 5/17, Mass ACT organized a car protest outside of Shattuck Hospital and Tewksbury State Hospital — the two largest state-run psychiatric facilities in Mass; both of which have been heavily impacted by COVID-19 (13 residents have died, two of them on the hospital grounds).
As Sera Davidow stated, “When you have people held against their will, who have been marginalized often for much of their lives, held somewhere without the public being able to find out what’s going on—that’s a problem of its own. There are lots of people in these hospitals who have a lot to say, but without support from the outside, the risk to them [in speaking out] is really, really high.”
Project LETS is organizing to support campaigns to #FreeThemAll from psychiatric institutions + all congregate settings, but we need your support. Contact us to get involved.
Source: Leah Ida Harris — “Free Our People!” Ex-Psychiatric Patients Demand COVID-19 Accountability in State-Run Facilities
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DISABILITY INTEGRATION ACT (dia)
The Disability Integration Act (DIA) is civil rights legislation, introduced by Senator Schumer in the Senate and Representative Sensenbrenner in the House, to address the fundamental issue that people who need Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) are forced into institutions and losing their basic civil rights. The legislation (S.910, H.R.2472) builds on the 25 years of work that ADAPT has done to end the institutional bias and provide seniors and people with disabilities home and community-based services (HCBS) as an alternative to institutionalization.
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The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 620)
The ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 (H.R. 620) introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) would seriously weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act. It would make it easier for businesses to continue to ignore the ADA.
We believe that it is important for Congress to hear the voices of many who oppose this legislation. It is imperative that your Representative be told to oppose H.R. 620 ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017. Click here to contact your lawmakers!
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UPDATES:
2/8/2018: The ADA is under attack