Agreement reached for ending court oversight of Maine’s mental health services
The state and a group of plaintiffs have agreed on standards for services that, if met over the next year and a half, could dissolve a court order that s been in effect since 1990.
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Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services and a group of plaintiffs with severe mental health and psychiatric needs have reached an agreement that could end 30 years of court oversight of state mental health services.
A new report from Daniel Wathen, the court master overseeing a 1990 consent decree involving the former Augusta Mental Health Institute, outlines standards designed to ensure that mental health clients receive services promptly and that service providers are held accountable.
Remember history of AMHI campus
Letter
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I recently saw a letter to the editor about how the Kennebec Arsenal “deserves more” (Dec. 13). I would second that motion wholeheartedly and extend it to the entire former Augusta Mental Health Institute (AMHI) campus, which neighbors the Arsenal.
I genuinely think the people of Augusta do not realize what a historic gem they have right under their noses. Opened in the 1840s and closed in the 2000s, the campus represents the long history of mental health treatment in this country. If those walls could talk.
The buildings that made up the AMHI are beyond historically significant and structures like them are getting rarer. So many former asylums are being torn down (or have been already). I fear that with their demise, an important and neglected part of our history will be lost. The state of Maine and city of Augusta should do more to interpret the history of the site.