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West Virginians with disabilities remain institutionalized in mental hospitals. State officials have done little to get them out

Mar. 9—As the 2024 legislative session concludes, dozens of people who health providers say are ready for release remain indefinitely institutionalized at state mental hospitals.

State health officials have been told for years that people who should be living in homes are increasingly being unjustly confined to state psychiatric hospitals. And last year, lawmakers commissioned studies to look at why people with developmental disabilities, like severely low IQ, cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, were being institutionalized.

At the time, advocates said dozens of people who should be released were still being held.

State health officials studied the problem and met with lawmakers to recommend ways to release people, including building health care facilities for people in need of short-term mental health crisis care.

But as the end of the legislative session nears, neither state health officials nor lawmakers have put the recommendations in place, according to Mike Folio, legal director of Disability Rights of WV, a group that monitors health agencies and facilities to assure the rights of people with disabilities aren't being violated.

And there are more than 60 people who could be released but are still being held.

"We've asked multiple times when they're going to implement the recommendations and where the funding is going to be for them," he said.

The Department of Human Services recently posted a job opening for a statewide position which would work to reduce institutionalization of people with disabilities. A department spokesperson said that this person will implement the recommendations.

Only one bill that could help people with disabilities get out of institutions, HB 4408, made it through Crossover Day, the legislative deadline for bills to make it out of their chamber of origin. But since then, it has been parked in committee.

The longer that a person remains within a mental institution, the harder that it becomes for them to be deemed mentally stable and released. Folio said the bright lights, crowding and noise within these facilities are aggravating to people with certain conditions.

HB 4408 would have made way for the state to open up more beds at small-group facilities, which would be better suited for people with disabilities than hospitals. The bill passed the House and was sent to the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.

Sen. Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, the committee's chair, said that he convened health officials, companies and advocates to discuss the bill. But since they couldn't agree, he predicted revisiting the issue during the 2025 legislative session.

"No one can come to common ground on how to address it," he said.

People with disabilities who can live at home can live more fulfilling, happier lives, with outings to places like libraries, parks and movie theaters. But there is a shortage of workers who can assist with tasks of daily living like laundry, hygiene and bill paying.

Cindy Beane, commissioner for the state Bureau of Medical Services, told lawmakers in a December meeting that a study found state lawmakers should raise pay for these workers who usually make $10-12 an hour. Both the companies that employ them and advocates agreed.

But during this legislative session, lawmakers in leadership positions didn't put forward for consideration any pay raise bills. Ann Ali, spokesperson for the House of Delegates, said House Health and Human Resources Chair Amy Summers, R-Taylor, had anticipated funding could come later, as part of the budget process.

Brad Story, CEO of the West Virginia Behavioral Healthcare Providers Association, said the companies are ill-equipped to care for all people in need without pay raises, and he said HB 4408 wouldn't have addressed that problem.

"We're at the tip of the iceberg here with staffing," he said.

But in January, Cynthia Persily, secretary of the Department of Human Services, told lawmakers that raises weren't a priority.

"They're not doing their job," Folio said, referencing health officials. "That's the bottom line."

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Visit The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.) at www.register-herald.com

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