35 Years Protecting and Advocating for Individuals with Mental Illness

By Kathryn Strobach and Molly Paris

Disability Rights Florida is observing our country’s 72^nd Mental Health Awareness Month. This year is especially exciting as it marks the 35^th Anniversary of our Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) grant. Since 1986, the Protection and Advocacy (P&A) System in every state has worked through the PAIMI program to protect the rights of individuals with mental health conditions. PAIMI authorizes P&As to investigate abuse and neglect and rights violations in public and private facilities and community settings, oversee the entities that regulate these programs, and ensure access to community-based services and supports. 

DRF attorneys, advocates, investigators, and staff have been hard at work protecting the rights of individuals under the PAIMI grant. Several of the highlights are:

• Litigation against state prisons and county jails for failure to protect inmates with mental illness from abuse and neglect and failure to provide appropriate mental health treatment.
• Monitoring the health and safety of adults in state-operated mental health treatment facilities, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and community settings.
• Providing advocacy to ensure that individuals are not needlessly institutionalized and are given the opportunity to live independently in the community with appropriate supports.
• Investigation of abuse and neglect in facilities and programs that provide services to students with mental health concerns.
• Legal representation of individuals with mental illness to ensure the protection of rights under the Fair Housing Act.
• Increasing safeguards and protections to reduce school-initiated Baker Acts of students with mental health diagnoses and behavioral concerns.

An important part of DRF’s PAIMI grant is our PAIMI Advisory Council (PAC). Federal regulations require the PAIMI program to have an advisory council to "advise the system on policies and priorities to be carried out in protecting and advocating the rights of individuals with mental illness." The PAC is comprised of at least 60% primary mental health consumers with the chairperson being an individual who has received or is receiving mental health services or who has a family member who receives such services. Additional members are family members of mental health consumers, attorneys, mental health professionals, providers of mental health services, and individuals from the public who are knowledgeable about mental illnesses.

If you are interested in applying and learning more about the PAC, please visit our PAIMI Advisory Council webpage to read the Governing Rules and to download an application.