EditorMilwaukee County is moving mentally-challenged people out of institutions and into community-based residential facilities in order to comply with a federal law that requires patient to be cared for in the “least restrictive setting possible,” reports Milwaukee’s Journal-Sentinel.
This has created some controversy which resulted in a union representative getting arrested for disrupting a Milwaukee County Mental Health Board meeting on Thursday.
The representative repeatedly shouted that Behavioral Health Division officials would endanger public safety by releasing to the community two long-term care mental health patients who each have been charged with a sex offense in their past. Security staff removed the man from the room and he was subsequently arrested and placed in a Sheriff’s Office squad car.
The union representative referred to two patients among the final four in a long-term psychiatric care unit at the Mental Health Complex. The four are scheduled to be moved to a group home on W. Uncas Ave. on Milwaukee’s south side later this month where they will be monitored by staff 24 hours a day in a secure residence.
Although the individuals will be monitored by staff 24 hours a day, only time will tell if, in fact, the union representative will be proven right—that the two individuals are an endangerment to the community.
Read more here.
Add comment