When a leaked HHS budget proposal suggested that Protection & Advocacy organizations might experience significant reductions to their federal funding, it frightened me. I have been involuntarily detained in psychiatric facilities, and although it has been over 20 years since I went through those experiences I am still haunted by them. The trauma caused when someone is forced into these systems can be instantaneous. It can have a pervasive and irreparable impact on the person experiencing it. And for someone like me, someone who has been forced into facilities and deemed mentally unfit to be free, Protection & Advocacy organizations are the federally empowered watchdogs that can provide a glimmer of hope. When properly resourced, these organizations may genuinely be the safeguard preventing some states from devolving back to the horrific dehumanization embodied in tragedies like the Willowbrook State School in New York. 

So, yeah, hearing that these organizations might be severely diminished frightened me.

To try and better communicate what these organizations do, and the type of impact that they can have, I am doing a series of interviews with people from P&As throughout the United States. This is the first episode in that series where I spoke with attorneys from Disability Law Colorado about the work they do and why P&As are important.

Disability Law Colorado:

https://disabilitylawco.org