Kentucky lawmakers remove funding for mental health program

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Kentucky lawmakers have removed funding that helps keep those facing mental health conditions out of jail.

It’s called Assisted Outpatient Treatment.

WDRB reports that it provides wrap around care for people in a vicious cycle of going from the street to the hospital to jail due to mental illness.

Advocates say it could get worse unless the state changes course.

Judge Stephanie Burke with the Jefferson District Court says that is the revolving door. Burke runs a mental health docket in Louisville, Kentucky and the AOT program.

Burke says the “senseless overincarceration” of those facing mental illness in the community needs to stop.  She says with the lack of other options for these individuals, they often end up in jail.

A year ago, Dawn Hall entered Burke’s courtroom.

Hall’s success in AOT was a shining light at the Spirit of Peace Awards Dinner put on by the National Alliance on Mental Health Kentucky.

Hall never dreamed she would be standing in the middle of a banquet hall, stone cold sober and cleared headed. She says at the age of 16, Bipolar disorder took over her life when she went off of her medication.

She says every time she would decide to come off of it, she would end up in the hospital or in jail. She crashed both of her parents’ cars, faced dozens of traffic violations and minor criminal charges. She was also put into treatment programs, jails and spent three months in the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Hospital.

The judge says there are thousands more of people like Hall, and treating them is in jeopardy as lawmakers in the House removed AOT funding from the governor’s budget.

Burke and others urged the Senate to restore the money for AOT.