KY Contacts

Title	Legislator Name	Address	County	ADD/CMHC Region	Role on Committee	Party
Rep	Robert Benvenuti III	2384 Abbeywood Rd Lexington KY 40515	Fayette	15-Bluegrass	Vice Chair	R
Rep	George Brown, Jr.	424 E. Fourth St. Lexington KY 40508-1520	Fayette	15-Bluegrass	Member	D
Rep	Tom Burch	4012 Lambert Ave Louisville KY 40218	Jefferson	6-Seven Counties	Chair	D
Rep	Bob M. DeWeese	6206 Glenhill Rd Louisville KY 40222	Jefferson, Oldham	6-Seven Counties	Member	R
Rep	Joni L. Jenkins	2010 O'Brien Ct Shively KY 40216	Jefferson	6-Seven Counties	Member	D
Rep	Mary Lou Marzian	2007 Tyler Ln Louisville KY 40205	Jefferson	6-Seven Counties	Member	D
Rep	Reginald Meeks	PO Box 757 Louisville KY 40201	Jefferson	6-Seven Counties	Member	D
Rep	Phil Moffett	812 Brookhill Rd Louisville KY 40223	Jefferson	6-Seven Counties	Member	R
Rep	Tim Moore	417 Bates Rd Elizabethtown KY 42701	Grayson, Hardin	5-Communicare	Member	R
Rep	Darryl T. Owens	1018 S 4th St, Ste 100 Louisville KY 40203	Jefferson	6-Seven Counties	Member	D
Rep	Ruth Ann Palumbo	10 Deepwood Dr Lexington KY 40505	Fayette	15-Bluegrass	Member	D
Rep	David Watkins	1280 Taransay Dr Henderson KY 42420-9152	Daviess, Henderson	3-River Valley	Vice Chair	D
Title	Legislator Name	Address	County	ADD/CMHC Region	Role on Committee	Party
Rep	Russell Webber	PO Box 6605 Shepherdsville KY 40165	Bullitt, Hardin	5-Communicare 6-Seven Counties	Member	R
Rep	Susan Westrom	PO Box 22778 Lexington KY 40522	Fayette	15-Bluegrass	Member	D
Rep	Addia Wuchner	PO Box 911 Burlington KY 41005	Boone	7-NorthKey	Vice Chair	R

TOLL-FREE MESSAGE LINE TO LEGISLATORS: 1-800-372-7181

LEGISLATORS’ FAX NUMBER: 1-502-564-6543

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Kentucky Advocate, Jim Dailey Supports AOT ...

"It is the humane thing to do to support those with serious mental illness."

November 7, 2010.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my support for the excellent efforts being made by GG Burns to provide a forum for discussion of the need in Kentucky for an Assisted Outpatient Treatment law that will allow for people with serious mental illness to be treated in the community and not incarcerated needlessly.

All too often, people who, due to their inability or unwillingness to seek treatment for their mental illness, come into contact with the Criminal Justice system rather than being afforded an opportunity to get the community mental health treatment they so need and deserve.  It is well-established that the Criminal Justice system does not provide effective mental health treatment to those with serious mental illnesses who are incarcerated. 

The statistics of those with serious mental illness that are incarcerated have grown exponentially since the closing of state mental hospitals in the ‘60s.  This is when the Community Mental Health care bill was passed by Congress.  It was a great step in the right direction (community mental health treatment v. extended hospitalization) for those with mental illness.  However, the tragedy of incarcerating the mentally ill that ensued in the years since has been brought on by a lack of funding for community mental health treatment.  Thus, the long-term outcome has demonstrated that the jails and prisons have become the de facto hospitals of the pre-‘60s.  Ask any administrator of a jail or a prison.  Ask them about the adequacy of funding and what their background is and it will almost always never consist of credentials in mental health treatment.  Thousands of people with MI are being marginally treated or not treated at all in these institutions.

A better solution is to allow increased funding for the community mental health treatment system to meet the needs of our most vulnerable population with serious mental illness in the community!  This would certainly decrease the overcrowding in our jails/prisons and help unclog our overburdened courts that deal with the problems brought about by UNTREATED mental illness every day.

“AOT” means Assisted Outpatient Treatment, and can be a solution to much of the burden on both parts of the Criminal Justice system, our courts and our jails/prisons.  AOT allows those who have already been snared in the court system to remain in the community rather than to become incarcerated, if treatment is maintained.  This alternative is much more humane than its alternative, doing NOTHING!

I believe our legislators will embrace AOT as an alternative to the current situation when they become educated about the humane treatment provided for by it.  It is a very workable alternative to the current system of dealing with people that choose not to or are unable due to their mental illness, to seek and maintain needed treatment.

Speak to your legislator and help educate them about the benefits of AOT.  This is the only thing that will make a difference in getting a bill passed in the Kentucky General Assembly.  Remember. advocating for your just cause is the only thing that ever has been successful.  Best wishes for much success,

Jim Dailey

NAMI Kentucky Executive Director (ret.)

NAMI Board of Directors - Emeritus

Kentucky CIT Program Coordinator

CIT International Treasurer

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Homes, Not Jails or Prison, Are What's Needed for People With Mental Illnesses

Deborah De Santis

President and CEO of the Corporation for Supportive Housing The Huffington Post

Posted: June 2, 2010 05:54 PM from the Huffington Post

Homeless and severely mentally ill, Lavelle has been arrested more than 150 times in the last decade, traveling between Chicago's littered skid row and the Cook County Jail without ever getting any meaningful treatment. A recent study issued by the National Sheriff's Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center, entitled "More Mentally Ill Persons Are in Jails and Prisons Than Hospitals: A Survey of the States," shows that Lavelle is not alone.

The study describes the shocking fact that there are now three times more mentally ill persons in American jails and prisons than there are in hospitals. In many urban areas, it's much worse. In California, it's about four times worse, in Florida, the figure is five times, and in Arizona, there are nine times more people with mental illness imprisoned than in psych wards. The human and financial implications of this worsening national trend are frightening. People with mental illnesses should have mental health treatment and a safe place to live instead of languishing in already overcrowded jails and prisons. Shockingly, in the end, it's the taxpayers that get stuck. In California alone, more than $100,000 a year is spent to incarcerate a single person with mental illness.

Today, I'm joined in this blog by Martin F. Horn of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, former Commissioner of NYC Department of Correction and Probation, and the Honorable Evelyn Stratton of the Ohio State Supreme Court, both co-chairs of CSH's Returning Home Advisory Committee, to say that there is a better way. And the Sheriff's Association report provides a road map. It calls for more mental health courts like the ones in Ohio that get people into community treatment programs rather than imprisoning them. It calls for overhauling our mental health laws and improving community-based services as is happening in states like New York. And we also need supportive housing -- safe, affordable housing that is closely linked to the mental health services and other supports people with mental illnesses need to thrive in the community and stay out of jail. Communities across the country are proving supportive housing works.

These communities are making certain that people with serious mental illness move into apartments and get the services they need when they are released from jail, rather than being dumped homeless on the streets. By making supportive housing available, cities have been able to drastically reduce the number of days people with mental illness stay in jail. In New York, the reduction has been 53%, in Denver the reduction is 76% and in Rhode Island it is 79%. A recent study by John Jay College of Criminal Justice found that supportive housing not only broke the cycle of incarceration and homelessness, but also is expected to begin saving tax dollars after three years by reducing stays in jail (which costs $129 a day) and reliance on homeless shelters (which costs $68 per day).

Lavelle adds a human face to this story. After his last stint in jail, he moved into supportive housing, was enrolled in treatment, got re-connected to his family, and has remained out of jail since then -- something that even he thought would be impossible.

The National Sheriff's Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center's disturbing report has sounded yet another alarm about our need to stop incarcerating people who are seriously mentally ill, homeless, and suffer from co-occurring disorders such as alcoholism and drug addiction. For those who listen the report demonstrates that addressing the housing needs and providing services to Lavelle and the thousands more like Lavelle is the right solution.