Investigation Finds Kentucky Overly Reliant on Psychiatric Hospitals | Kentucky

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation has found that Kentucky is failing to provide access to community-based mental health services for people who need it and instead relies too heavily on psychiatric hospitals.

According to the report, the state may be violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Licensed psychologist Sheila Shuster, who is part of the Advocacy Action Network, said years of budget cuts have reduced or eliminated crisis centers in Louisville — such as the Living Room, which opened its doors in 2018 and closed within a year due to a lack of funding .

“Three to four hundred people come in every month, use the services and get referrals,” Shuster said. “And then, boom, it’s gone. So that was in May 2019 and we no longer use anything like that.”

The University of Louisville Hospital provides emergency psychiatric treatment to more than 2,200 adults with serious mental illnesses each year.

In a separate investigation last year, the Justice Department concluded that the city and the Louisville Metro Police Department violated the ADA by subjecting people with mental illnesses to unnecessary police action.

While the new report raises awareness of the needs of people with mental illness, Shuster says it doesn’t represent the whole picture.

She pointed to recent changes the city has made, such as its emergency call diversion program for mental health incidents, as well as families’ perspectives on the role of hospitalizations.

“By and large, what I’m hearing from family members is not that their loved one is staying in the hospital too long, but rather that they’re not staying there long enough,” Shuster said, “which I think is the tipping point to the revolving door.”

Marcie Timmerman, executive director of Mental Health America in Kentucky, said the focus should be on early intervention and treatment to keep people out of police trouble.

“We would like to have more vendors available,” Timmerman said. “I’m not sure locating our psychiatric hospitals is really helpful.”

She added that a mobile crisis response system and Medicaid-funded housing and support programs could help reduce the number of people who continue to cycle through hospitalizations and the criminal justice system.