ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A major U.S. Department of Justice investigation has concluded that children in Alaska with mental health issues are “forced to endure unnecessary and unduly long” institutionalization in locked psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment facilities because no alternatives exist.
The state of Alaska is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide alternatives that would allow kids to stay in their homes and communities, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division found in a report released Friday.
Alaska kids are regularly sent for six months or more to hospitals like North Star hospital in Anchorage or facilities as far away as Texas and Missouri for lack of other options in their home communities, the department concluded.
