Center for Public Representation

CONTACT:

22 Green Street
Northampton, MA 01060
413-586-6024
centerforpublicrep.org

Steven J. Schwartz, executive director

DESCRIPTION:

CPR was founded in 1972 in Northampton as a non-profit public interest law firm. Its mission is to protect and strengthen the civil rights and opportunities of people and especially children with disabilities—physical, developmental, or psychiatric—through policy analyses, advocacy, and litigation. As scientific and technological advances have transformed the treatment and support of disabilities, CPR has worked to clear away cultural, legal, and institutional impediments, and with remarkable success—they are a national leader in this field. In 1978 they won a landmark judgment to close all public psychiatric institutions in a large part of Massachusetts, in favor of community-based mental health support systems. In 2000 they won the first class action lawsuit establishing the rights of nursing home residents to active treatment and community placement. Recently they filed a class action on behalf of 3,000 Medicaid-eligible children in Massachusetts who require intensive home- and community-based services. CPR’s four initiatives now are to expand home-based services for children with psychiatric disabilities; to require community options for those with developmental disabilities in nursing facilities; to implement therapeutic strategies for emotionally disturbed children in juvenile justice facilities; and to develop guidelines for psychiatric care in hospital emergency rooms. If you share CPR's values, here is an opportunity to help them.

(2004: HUMAN SERVICES: Well-Being)