The final details of an 11-year-old class-action lawsuit that put an end to so-called warehousing and drastically changed services to mentally disabled Utahns have been worked out.
A stipulated dismissal in the "Lisa P." lawsuit is expected to be filed next week in 3rd District Court containing the arrangements agreed to by the Utah Attorney General's Office and agencies representing the residents of the Developmental Center in American Fork.
The suit was filed by the Disability Law Center and ARC of Utah, formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens for Utah, in December 1989. It generally accused the center of overusing restraints and medication to control patients as well as creating a generally unsafe environment.
Most of the former center residents now reside in group homes or other community facilities, although 238 patients are still at the developmental center. The state expects that most of those likely will find community-based services over the next several years.
The state and center officials have been disputing how to carry out agreements in the suit reached more than seven years ago. The need of each patient has been evaluated,
and based on the person's needs and support services recommended by a team of guardians, attorneys and developmental center staff, a determination was made on whether to keep the patient at the center or to find services in community-based agencies or group homes.
Fraser Nelson, executive director of the Disability Law Center, who was at the Capitol on Friday to answer lawmakers' questions about the progress of the settlement, said that specific terms of the dismissal are still being worked out. The agreement speaks to the original intent of the suit, which was to ensure the placement of a developmentally disabled or mentally retarded person in the "least restrictive and most enabling environment," she said.
Karma Dixon, the assistant attorney general now handling the case, said she did not want to discuss specifics until documents are filed.
"Let's just say that the pieces have finally all fallen into place," Dixon said. "Since we filed a motion to dismiss in November, the parties have been negotiating in good faith, and we worked it out."
Nelson said that the patient reassessment has been completed, and although there remain disagreements on what is the best placements for some of the residents, "it was not helpful to broaden the case or continue to negotiate endlessly."
The law center has never asked that the center be closed, only that the state come to understand that an array of services need to be available to the disabled Utahns. "We think Lisa P. went a long ways to assuring that in the future," Nelson said.
The case involved the notion that states are obligated under the 14th Amendment to provide safe living conditions, freedom from bodily restraint and minimally adequate training of mentally disabled citizens. States are not constitutionally required to provide the disabled the least restrictive environment, but the Disability Law Center argued that the mentally disabled have better lives if they have services and facilities that are more residential than institutional.
Some of the guardians and parents believe strongly that the center will always be the best place for their children, Nelson said. "We are very empathetic toward those families. Things are better at the center because of Lisa P., but families need to be more concerned about what services are available and less about where they get them."
E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com