The Justice Department opened a disability rights investigation into Michigan's state psychiatric hospitals.
The department will investigate whether the state unnecessarily kept adults with serious mental illness in state psychiatric hospitals and failed to provide necessary, community-based mental health services to allow patients to transition from hospitals and remain stable in the community, according to a Nov. 13 news release.
Michigan has four state psychiatric hospitals: Caro Psychiatric Hospital, the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Washtenaw County, Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital and Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital in Westland.
The department notified the Michigan Department of Attorney General and Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services of its investigation.
"The Americans with Disabilities Act protects people's right to receive mental health services in the community, rather than remaining in hospitals when they are ready to go home," Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in the news release. "This investigation will assess whether Michigan is honoring the ADA's promise that people with disabilities be served in the most integrated setting appropriate."