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  • Wilder Shmaltz
The most gut-wrenching article you can read this morning? The Oregon Center for Public Policy's roundup "The Swing of the Budget Ax": a detailed report of the human impact of the looming state budget cuts. Especially hard hit by this year's across-the-board nine percent cuts are mentally ill people who are able to remain relatively independent because of the care they receive in their homes.

Disability Rights Oregon believes that the cutbacks in this in-home treatment are so severe under this year's budget axe that they will force many mentally ill people into institutions.

That's illegal under the Olmstead decision, in which a court ruled that people with disabilities have a right to live in their communities and a state cannot force its citizens to be institutionalized.

The only way to stop the cuts? Sue the state. On July 2nd, Disability Rights Oregon sent out letters to its clients seeking plaintiffs for a possible lawsuit against the state. They're looking for people who have recently been hospitalized but are stable now because of the vital state services that will be cut. Check out the details here and if you're a person with mental illness who might be headed back to the state hospital without services, contact DRO to join the suit.