When the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its investigation into the housing of the mentally challenged under court-appointed guardianship in Missouri, Michelle Anaya believed there might be a glimmer of hope for her brother who is housed at Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center in Farmington.
“My concern is that they're just going to keep moving him and keep him locked away when he doesn't need to be,” she said. “I'm so grateful they’re looking into this. I really have a lot of confidence but I'm still so concerned about all those other people.”
Anaya’s brother, Jeffrey, is among a rising number of Missourians who have been placed under court supervision in the past two decades due to an aging population with dementia, an increase in people with mental health diagnoses, medical treatments helping patients with traumatic brain injury to live longer and the impact of substance abuse on the youth, according to a Missouri Public Guardianship report issued last year.
“I'm glad that they are going to be finally shedding light hopefully to what's really happening because even though my brother's been in there for so long in the system, I had no idea there were so many other people,” Anaya told the St. Louis Record. “I thought it was just him.”
In the aftermath of the "Free Britney Spears" movement, the DOJ is conducting its investigation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and will be evaluating whether the State of Missouri unnecessarily institutionalizes mentally challenged adults in locked care centers.
Anaya, for example, says her brother has bipolar disorder and is placed in handcuffs when transported. The Jackson County resident travels four hours to Farmington to visit her brother but says there's no guarantee she will be able to see him upon arrival.
“At my mother’s funeral, they had my brother in cuffs in the vehicle,” she said. “I did not know he was in cuffs until I walked him out to the car and he was getting ready to get in the car. He's never been charged. I’ve searched Casenet for court documents and there are no criminal charges against him.”
Entertainer, Britney Spears’ guardianship, known as conservatorship in California, has raised awareness of alleged abuses that can occur as a result of court-appointed guardianships. For example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reports guardianships being used for surveillance, to deny visitation with friends and family, to interfere with reproductive rights, to deny medical care, to deny nutritious meals and medication, and to unnecessarily confine individuals.
"I wrote so many letters not knowing where to send them because no one knows what to do," Anaya added. "When you ask who is making decisions, the answer's always 'the state,' 'the state.' Everyone's so confused. It's just a mess. The goal is for my aunt to take guardianship of my brother."
National advocates against abusive court-appointed guardianships have long held that many elderly, physically-disabled, mentally ill, and developmentally disabled individuals would be better served in a community setting with supportive services rather than being institutionalized under a guardianship in which there is no supervision other than by court insiders.
“People with disabilities have too often been unlawfully isolated in institutions and stripped of their autonomy,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division in a statement online. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to defend the rights of individuals with mental health disabilities to access the community-based services they need and to participate fully in community life.”